


Community and the New Trainee(or, Sorcery and the Charming Spirit) - by theChaplinfangirl

by SissolxJeffC4ever



Category: Books - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-29
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-14 11:57:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 30,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14135568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SissolxJeffC4ever/pseuds/SissolxJeffC4ever
Summary: Things get complicated when a supposed new trainee arrives at the Sorcerers' Lair. Will our favourite sorcerers be able to deal with a new trainee in their midst?Also, what does the dark cult want with Lanvin? It's surely another adventure without going into the time void!This is my first time writing fanfiction for my friend's book trilogy, so please be kind.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I am theChaplinfangirl, a new fanfiction writer. I don't have an account here yet, but I really want to share my fics with everyone. I'm borrowing SissolxJeffC4ever's account -- with her permission -- to post here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SUMMARY: 
> 
>  
> 
> Things get complicated when a supposed new trainee arrives at the Sorcerers’ lair. Will our favorite sorcerers be able to deal with a new trainee in their midst? 
> 
> Also, what does the dark cult want with Lanvin? It’s surely another adventure without going into the time void! 
> 
>  
> 
> Each of the chapters will tell you which pairing I decided to use, because this is my first time ever writing a multi-chapter fic for the Community trilogy! 
> 
>  
> 
> This is post-trilogy, so beware of spoilers if you haven’t yet read the third volume!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, many of you wanted a multi-chapter fic on the Community trilogy, so here it is. I have no idea how many chapters are there, so please bear with me. 
> 
>  
> 
> A/N 2: I’m not even sure which crack-pair am I using for this, so I guess it’s Ibis/Alistair Vonnegut and Lanvin Dusset/OC? 
> 
>  
> 
> A/N 3: Also, it may get dark as it progresses, but don’t worry, nothing terrible will happen to our favorite characters. Because I’m trying my best at writing something that’s close to the books. 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> KEY(who I wish could portray the characters, and who you can imagine as the characters): 
> 
>  
> 
> • Alistair Vonnegut — Michael Crawford(because Michael should be Alistair!) 
> 
>  
> 
> • Ibis — Willem Dafoe(because he should get to be a sorcerer after being too typecast in Marvel movies!) 
> 
>  
> 
> • Cera Hildebrand — Sandi Toksvig(because reasons.) 
> 
>  
> 
> • Lanvin Dusset — Collin Firth and/or Robert Sean Leonard(because it should. Also, Collin and Robert are literally twins.) 
> 
>  
> 
> • Stephen Hildebrand — Unknown. Please, your imagination is needed right now! 
> 
>  
> 
> • Jeffrey O’Cairn — Same as above. 
> 
>  
> 
> • Stansa — Emma Thompson and/or Darla Craye Sissol, aka theChaplinfangirl(because CRACK, also I wouldn't stop thinking about Emma when reading the originals that it’s getting cringeworthy!) 
> 
>  
> 
> • Korvo(OC) — Alan Davies(because he’s too cute not to be Korvo!)

  It was an overcast day when Jeffrey O’Cairn appeared in the Sorcerers’ Lair, as Cera Hildebrand liked to call it, which in its own case, used to be an abandoned apartment building until deconstruction happened. When deconstruction happened, the Sorcery World put a spell over it, in order for it to look like nothing but a pile of rubble, near the start of an alleyway. 

  From the first floor, Jeffrey could hear voices speaking, even though he could only recognize Stephen Hildebrand and Ibis, their former rival. 

 

  “…should be very proud of yourselves,” a different male voice was saying, “and you are Cera Hildebrand’s younger brother, isn’t it?” 

  And that was what Jeffrey ran into. 

 

  “Who is this, Stephen?” he demanded as he entered the big room that used to be the living room, according to Alistair Vonnegut. 

  “My name’s Korvo and I’m the new trainee of Alistair.” the sorcerer, who was leaning against the table, straightened and said. 

  Jeffrey looked slightly puzzled. “O…K,” he said slowly, “now why would Alistair not tell us?” 

 

  Stephen, from near the monitor, walked over. 

  “According to Ibis, he wasn’t prepared,” he replied, “and yes, Jeff, Korvo is the newest addition of our group.” 

  Jeffrey nodded and went over to the monitor to check it himself. Korvo…he’s heard of him before from Alistair, but exactly why was he so familiar? 

 

  The monitor suddenly showed footage from the Lanvin Dusset case, and Jeffrey’s eyes widened. Korvo had connections to that case? Wasn't Lanvin’s case over already? 

  “The Lanvin Dusset case.” all of a sudden, Ibis spoke, “that was the first time Alistair followed our trail of thought when we sent in the disturbance. Korvo was the one who cared for Lanvin before the dark sorcery cult declared Lanvin as possessed.” 

 

  Jeffrey remembered about how terrifying the cult of dark sorcerers were, and Korvo wasn’t involved at all with Alistair, so why should he even care? 

  “Why should you even care about Lanvin?” 

  “His manic depressive state was getting worse, and without Alistair, he wouldn’t’ve survived,” replied Korvo, his dark eyes glittering at the mention of the dark cult. 

 

  It was way late did Alistair, Cera, and Stansa arrive at the sorcerers’ lair, and just like what Jeffrey thought would happen, Alistair’s eyes fell on Korvo. 

  “So the newest addition is you,” he said quietly, not irritated or disbelieving at all. “I don’t understand, why did the Council not want you to serve for them anymore?” 

  “I left, resigned from it, since the case with Lanvin Dusset,” Korvo replied, his dark curls framing his face perfectly. Alistair couldn’t help but notice how beautiful he was. “The Council hardly cared about someone who really needs us, Alistair. And wasn’t that the reason you left, as well?” 

 

  Alistair sighed and nodded. Ever since the Lanvin Dusset case, nothing’s been the same since, and it was fortunate that Jeffrey and Stephen stopped with their questions. 

  “Korvo, please, not in front of them,” he said back, “they weren’t involved in Lanvin’s case.” 

  Stephen and Jeffrey looked nervously between them, and couldn’t help seeing something else; something was going on between the two sorcerers — Korvo and Alistair, that is — but what? 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o   

 

End chapter 1 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N 3: Because this is my first ever multi-chapter fic, I’m still not sure which direction to take it, so please tell me if you want any changes. 
> 
>  
> 
> A/N 4: And yes, there is some implied slash between Lanvin and Korvo, because I want Korvo to be empathetic like Alistair.


	2. Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pairing: Lanvin Dusset/Ibis(pre-pre-slash) 
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: I think for now, I’m writing this in different parts. First something light-hearted and may be slightly OOC, so please bear with me. And also, sorry to the readers because this is soooo unlike the trilogy.

 

   Stansa and Cera were at the so-called Sorcerers’ Lair the next day, and Ibis was with Alistair and Korvo in the former’s flat. Lanvin Dusset was with them as well. 

 

  “I still don’t really trust Korvo,” suddenly, when Lanvin went out of earshot and into the study, where Alistair told Stephen and Jeffrey to continue their training with Korvo, Ibis spoke aloud. He didn’t really not trust Korvo, since mentioned person aided Alistair and Co. on their mission to save Lanvin himself. 

  Alistair had been extremely self-satisfied, as usual, and was lounging when he heard Ibis’s words. 

 

  “Question: why is that?” he asked back, languidly, again. 

  Ibis forced himself to not freak out just like that. 

  “I just don’t think it’s safe for Korvo and Lanvin to be together!” he said firmly, dismayed at his own exclamation. “Alistair, it’s definitely not that I adore or like Lanvin, which I don’t, it’s…uh…unexplainable.” 

 

  Ibis knew it himself that he was feeling disturbingly attracted to the manic depressive Lanvin Dusset, and it was indeed unexplainable. He wasn’t about to tell Alistair, since said person was rumoured to have feelings for him as well. 

  Sighing, Ibis turned away. Korvo was obviously close to Lanvin, so is Hamish Frye, the notorious Irish sorcerer, who, apparently, was in Lanvin’s inner circle. 

 

  “Korvo had been close to Hamish since Cera and I first met each other, Ibis, so it’s understandable why he and Lanvin are close,” said Alistair quietly, finally no longer as smug as he usually is, “in fact, I think it’s for Lanvin’s own good. He’s much more stable and relaxed when near Korvo.” 

  That sent Ibis into an unexpected fury. “So it’s all because of him then,” he said back, his aquamarine eyes darkening into a bright blue, “I thought they were just friends?” 

  Just friends was right, especially when Korvo seemed inseparable to Lanvin. 

 

  Something else inexplicable was why is Ibis attracted to him. Lanvin’s way too sensitive, and had been crying when Alistair and Cera went to visit him and reassure him. 

 

  Finally feeling too much jealousy on his part, Ibis got up from the couch. 

  “As expected, you’re not helping me to understand why I don’t trust Korvo.” he bit out the name as if it was one of Cera’s spells. 

  “You like him, don’t you?” was Alistair’s question. 

  Ibis controlled his body’s reactions to just the mention of Lanvin. “Yes, as a powerful enough sorcerer. No, because of his mental instability.” 

  “The Council didn’t care, and neither me or Korvo had any idea why.” Alistair looked at him and said back, “and you don’t just call him ‘mentally unstable’, Ibis. You have to understand he nearly killed himself because of how much despair he was feeling.” 

  And Korvo was there for him, went unsaid. 

 

*** 

 

  The rumors were too wild for any explanation, and when Ibis accidentally implied that he was finding it harder and harder to ignore the frustrating and alluring presence of Lanvin, Cera and Stansa were totally on board, as well as Jeffrey and Stephen. 

 

  “Finally!” shouted Stephen when he, Jeffrey, Ibis, Cera, and Stansa met each other the next day at the Sorcerers’ lair, before Korvo arrived. “I just knew it!” 

  “I have ZERO feelings for Dusset, Hildebrand!” shouted Ibis, his eyes darkening rapidly. If it wasn’t Cera’s brother he was shouting at, he’d blasted him to outer space already. “Whatever gave you that thought?!” 

  Stephen blushed. “Alistair was talking with Cera when he mentioned it,” he replied, slowly, in order for it to sink in bit by bit, “he didn’t imply anything, of course, so no worries.” 

  That was one of the moments when Ibis seriously considered killing the sorcerer right then and there. He, having feelings for Lanvin was just illogical, and don’t mention totally wrong. 

 

  It was worse that night, after curfew, that is. Stephen and Jeffrey were in Stephen’s room when they heard Cera and Stansa arguing in the corridor. 

  “…never confess at this rate!” Stansa was saying, “please, we have to make sure they confess!” 

  “Not so fast,” Cera. “Ibis and Lanvin are both very powerful sorcerers, and they’ll know it’s a plot all along. I’ll check whether there’s anything happening around the UK, so we’ll be traveling since there hasn’t been any disturbances in the timeline.” 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey smirked at each other. 

  “I told you that there’s something going on between Ibis and Lanvin,” said Jeffrey, closing the sorcery book he and Stephen were reading, prior to Cera and Stansa’s very loud arguing, “I say we go investigate.” 

 

  And that’s how come they were in front of the ajar door of Lanvin’s room, so late in the night. 

  Indeed, Lanvin, Korvo, and Ibis were all inside, talking amongst themselves. 

 

  “Alistair trusts us with them, and that’s why it’s s’posed to be Lanvin and I training them.” Korvo was saying. 

  From the ajar door, Stephen and Jeffrey could see that Lanvin and Korvo were sitting on the bed together, and Ibis was standing. Another thing they noticed, was how dark Ibis’s eyes were. 

  “If only…” smirked Jeff. 

  Stephen cracked up and turned away from the door, shaking with suppressed laughing. 

 

  “It can’t be,” he shook his head, “Ibis wouldn’t even admit that he’s got feelings — positive ones, mind you — towards Lanvin, because Lanvin is, according to him, mentally unstable. It’s just because of his condition.” 

 

  It was quiet for some time, then Ibis spoke again, but this time with plenty of bite. 

  “Get outta here, Korvo. It’s not even your room here.” 

  Jeffrey and Stephen looked at each other. Oh…no. 

  “Fair enough,” Korvo stood up from the bed and walked towards the door, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Lanvin?” 

  “See you then,” Lanvin replied quietly, and both Stephen and Jeffrey bolted towards Stephen’s room, casting a Silence spell before slamming their door, with their hearts in their mouths. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o  

 

End Chapter 2


	3. Going to Norfolk(or, Feelings Never Known

 A/N: No, sorry to break it to you, but I do not ship Korvo and Lanvin, since in the third volume, the latter is mostly paired up with Hamish Frye. Here, Lanvin reflects on his disturbing feelings for Ibis, and Korvo helps him come to terms with it. 

 

  Again, this is fueled by my current obsession with the television series of Kingdom, otherwise Norfolk wouldn’t appear, since it only appeared once — in the second volume. 

 

  Cera was already suffering from travel withdrawal until she proposed something almost out of the question — them all going to Norfolk, a county in north-eastern UK. And it was because there hasn’t been any disturbances in the timeline did she propose it. 

 

  “We can’t be traveling when there’s a disturbance, Cera, and you know it.” said Alistair Vonnegut when she asked, “also, Stephen and Jefferey has to continue their training.” 

  Cera was straight into begging now. “I reeeeaaally think you and Korvo may be interested in this!” she cried, in her thick north-eastern accent, “I almost forgot to tell you, there’s this Wicca festival coming up in Norwich!” (A/N: This was suggested by Ravenevermore, aka Jonathan, aka THE Author of Community. So please blame him for this.) 

 

  From the table in the dining room of Alistair’s flat, said person looked exasperated at his companion. 

  “Really, Cera, practicing Wicca?” he asked. 

 

  All of a sudden, as if on cue, there was an ultra-bright flash of white light and from the light, out stepped Stephen Hildebrand and Jeffrey O’Cairn. 

  “What’s the shouting about?” asked Stephen, still wearing his dressing-gown, “I hope we’re doing something that’s got to do with the current time void.” 

  Alistair smirked at Cera. “Sorry, Stephen said it.” 

  “They have no idea, and it’s not a good idea for them to come with us!” Cera was getting frustrated, “also, it’s essential to what Ibis and Lanvin have between them!” 

 

  That got everyone’s attention, as expected. 

  “Lanvin Dusset and Ibis?” Jeffrey was grinning now, and no longer half-asleep, “I told you, din’t I, Stephen, about them last night? You said that because of Lanvin’s condition, Ibis may not love him. But he does! See, even Cera said so.” 

  “He does?” Stephen went to the kitchen to make some Waking restorative and asked. 

 

  Sighing in exasperation, Cera stalked to the kitchen. 

  “Of course he does!” she exclaimed, “otherwise why would he go to Lanvin’s room last night when Korvo was with him?” 

  Stephen remembered about last night and what Ibis said. It may be possible, that Ibis really had feelings for Lanvin, but is unsure how to express them. 

 

*** 

 

  When they were on their way, Cera suggested to take the Sorcerers’ Express, this train that was located near a very secretive spot in King’s Cross Station in Non-Magic London. 

 

  “Wasn’t it underground?” Korvo asked when they were going through the corridors, now almost full of their own kind of people — sorcerers, that is. 

  “According to the tabloids of the non-magic folks, there is a construction site right underneath the station,” Cera explained, “we normally travel via time void instead, so Alistair and I are not so sure ‘bout whether it is the construction site or not.” 

  “It is, actually,” said Lanvin when they arrived at the escalator, “it’s not underground, to be exact, it’s more like a train station within a train station.” 

 

  After almost hours of looking for the Express, Cera and her companions got on and chose compartments to stay. 

  “Also, Lanvin and Ibis, no need to be insecure,” she smiled, way too knowingly, according to Ibis, “Korvo, Alistair, and Jeffrey will be with Lanvin, and Stephen, you will be with Ibis, me, and Stansa.” 

  Ibis’s eyes darkened at her. “Right, of course, Hildebrand.” he hissed. 

  Jeffrey and Stephen exchanged a glance at this change in Ibis’s personality. Definitely, he does not have any form of feeling towards Lanvin. 

 

  Jeffrey was Stephen’s messenger, it seems like, when they were finally on their way to Norfolk, UK. 

  “Why Norfolk?” asked Lanvin, after Jeffrey told him about their earlier plan. 

  “It seems that there’s this fair in Norwich, where Cera and Stephen are from.” Jeffrey explained, forgetting about his and Stephen’s earlier plot to interrogate their suspects on their feelings for each other. “Apparently she and Stephen used to practice Wicca, which in my case, haven’t learned about yet.” 

 

  “Does she even realize that Wicca is normally practiced between Magic cults?” Korvo suddenly asked, “not many sorcerers practice that anymore, except in some countries.” 

  “Also, isn’t Wicca practiced in different Covents?” Lanvin spoke again. 

 

  All of a sudden, before Alistair could reply to the question, there was a blinding flash of white light, and Stephen appeared. 

  “Jeffrey, you’ll never guess this, but Ibis literally denied his feelings!” he shouted, without even noticing Alistair and the others. “Ibis is always like that, pining in secret!” 

 

  That successfully distracted everyone from the Wicca topic. 

  “Ibis has feelings for someone?” Korvo asked, “never knew that he’s quite the romantic inside of him.” 

  Jeffrey beamed. “Lanvin, and you?” he cried, his hair changing colors. That was Jeffrey’s ability, to change his hair color to match his moods. Alistair had said that he’s got similar powers with Ibis, who could change eye color to indicate a change in personality. (A/N: Originally in the novels, it is Stephen who has this ability. Because I always imagined Jeffery as the more perky one, I gave him this ability.) 

  Lanvin blushed. “I…what?” 

  “Do you like anyone around here, other than Hamish?” it was Korvo who asked, instead. 

 

  Lanvin immediately looked away. “No, Korvo, and I don’t like Hamish the way you and Jeffrey are thinking about!” he snapped, glaring at them both. “And stop with the rumors! For once!!” 

 

  He was only best friends with Hamish, who helped him through another phase of his severe depression; and he never thought of him as someone romantic enough to be with. Korvo, definitely not as well. 

  “Jeffrey and Stephen, why should you even be on that bandwagon?” asked Alistair after Lanvin’s outburst. “If you think that Ibis has feelings for Lanvin, I think you’re just making that up — to feel like you belong with Ibis’s prejudices. You understand perfectly well that Ibis is unstable and never understanding when coming to conversations about Lanvin.” 

  “Cera said that Ibis cares about him, way deep inside him,” said Stephen, his eyes suddenly dreamy, “despite Ibis’s protests.” 

  “I said, enough with whatever Cera and Stansa are gossiping about!” Alistair looked hard at his trainees. “Ibis is distrustful to non-magic folks and he hardly even cares about Lanvin’s condition. Are you sure you want to be so judgmental as well?” 

  That did it. 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey rolled their eyes. “Fiiiiine!” sighed Stephen, exasperated beyond description. And to Jeff, he said, “we’ll talk more about this after we arrive.” 

  “No you will not.” said Alistair firmly, before Stephen disappeared, again in the bright light. 

 

*** 

 

  They were almost arriving when Alistair decided to talk to Cera herself about the rumors of Lanvin and Ibis, which sounded and is impossible. 

  “I’ll take care of him, go now.” said Korvo, then turned back to Lanvin, who was still looking out of the window, at the green fields, that looked too aesthetic and absolutely stunning. 

  “Jeffrey, come along as well.” said Alistair, and Jeffrey grudgingly got up from next to Lanvin and disappeared together with Alistair. 

 

  Soon, their compartment was quiet again, and the only sounds were the train engines. 

  “I don’t understand why, Korvo.” said Lanvin, after almost twenty minutes of silence. He was almost close to tears, and that was before Alistair lectured his two young trainees. 

 

  Korvo’s eyes softened. He and Alistair were the same kind of sorcerer, having the ability to feel a person’s aura, whether it’s positive or not. 

  “Cera was never like this enthusiastic, I understand,” he replied, moving to sit next to Lanvin, who was fighting back his urges to tear up. 

  “How can Alistair even stand her?!” Lanvin finally broke down, and Korvo wanted to hold him again, just like the time before Alistair and Cera met him for the first time. (A/N: Yes, because of Jonathan’s description of Korvo: ‘there were two sorcerers in the room, holding each other close. One was someone Alistair didn’t know, who had the most lush curls ever, and another, was Lanvin.’ that I became a bit too sentimental and soppy.) 

  “It’s hard for you, because of your condition, Lanvin, and it’s understandable that you took extreme offense to what Jeffrey, Stephen, and Cera said,” he said softly, moving closer to put his arm around Lanvin, “please, Lanvin, if it’s true, what they said, I won’t judge, I promise. If not, they should take back everything!” 

 

  Lanvin completely broke down after flinging his arms around Korvo. Ever since he and Alistair’s companions were formally introduced, the only ones who was understanding to him was Korvo and Alistair. But what really disturbed him now, was that he did feel something when he and Ibis had a normal conversation for the first time, when he was finally free to go out, and wanting to go out. 

  Lanvin had thought about the affectionate ways Ibis always talks about him, and without anyone else’s knowledge — especially not Cera, Stephen, Stansa, or Jeffrey — Ibis’s eyes always lighten whenever they were alone together. And that happened last night, as well. 

 

  “It is Ibis,” said Lanvin at last, softer than anything, “I don’t know why.” 

  Korvo smiled. He just knew it, and had planned everything all along, without anyone else’s knowledge; and that happened just last night, after curfew, as well. 

 

  “Have you even noticed how Ibis changes whenever I’m with Lanvin, Cera?” he’d asked when he’d left Lanvin’s room, with said person and Ibis still inside, “I swear he thought that I’m having a relationship with Lanvin. We’re not, in fact; it’s more like friendship.” 

  That hadn’t been so expected, to say the least. And Korvo, being someone who’s working undercover for her and Stansa when Ibis/Lanvin is actually forbidden? That is too thrilling to pass up. 

  “You know what I can do?” Cera had whispered mysteriously, an evil smile spreading on her face, “I’m going to invite them to Norfolk and make them confess to each other right there! Norfolk is so beautiful, the scenery, the seaside…” 

  Korvo had been persuaded already, and he was a wanker when coming to aesthetics, and Cera wasn’t about to find out. 

  “Brilliant,” he’d said, “now all you have to do is convince Alistair. OK, how ‘bout this: you say that there’s a Covent coming up, and you and Stephen had to go, since you’ve been practicing Wicca?” 

  Cera had basically been on the brim of fainting at the idea. 

  “That is brilliant!” she’d cried, “I’ll tell Alistair first thing tomorrow! Promise!” 

  And that’s how come they were all on the express on the way to Norfolk. 

 

  Back in the present, Korvo found that Lanvin had already fallen asleep, maybe due to the fact that they’ve been hugging, way longer, and being way too close for comfort. 

 

  All of a sudden, a blinding flash of white light, mixed with light blue, illuminated the entire compartment, and out stepped Alistair and Ibis. 

 

  It was fortunate that Korvo had already released Lanvin from his arms and moved to his own place across from him when the light appeared, because apparently, Ibis wasn’t happy about them being together in one compartment. 

  “We’re arriving soon, Korvo and Lanvin,” began Alistair, temporarily not noticing Lanvin still asleep, resting his head against the back of the seats, “so get ready.”

 

  Korvo nodded. “Got it.” 

 

  Alistair sat down next to Lanvin and Ibis next to Korvo, and at this moment, Ibis noticed that Lanvin was sleeping, so peacefully, and not at all depressive. He nearly smiled at that, until Alistair decided to break the illusion. 

 

*** 

 

  Norfolk was really a very aesthetic and picturesque place, much better than London, and being a county as well. When they arrived at Norwich Station, Cera was delighted. 

 

  “We’re finally back here, after so long!” she cried. “Now, all we have to do is go back to Stephen and my own estate! There’re ah lot of rooms, so no need to worry!” Here, Alistair noticed her sneak a look at Ibis and Lanvin, who was still groggy. 

  Disappearing from the station in the brightest flashes of lights ever, the sorcerers left for the Hildebrand estate, that was, ironically enough for Alistair and Ibis, basically a miniature form of Norwich castle. 

 

  The Hildebrand estate was a mansion that was located right behind the Norwich Town Hall; in Non-Magical Norwich. But according to Cera and Stephen, the spell was put there by their parents and non-magic folks never really paid any attention to the estate. 

  And something else unexpected, was how it was designed. There were eight rooms in total inside the mansion, four upstairs, and four downstairs. 

 

  After staring at it in a mesmerized way, Korvo finally asked the important question, “OK, so how will we be split?” 

  Stephen counted their numbers then said, “great, if anyone wants to share rooms, each room should only have two sorcerers. Jeffrey, please, we have to be together. You know the reason.” 

  Cera smirked at Stansa and Ibis. “Yes, and Stansa, let’s be together. Only for meetings, then separate.” 

 

  Ibis was still wondering why was everyone acting so weird when they finished the plans for the evening, in a really rushed manner. Seems like it’s time to investigate… 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o   

 

End Chapter 3 

 

 A/N 3: I understand if it’s too strange. It was suggested by Jonathan, aka the author of the originals. 

 

 A/N 4: OK, so it seems that SissolxJeffC4ever wants the classic crack-pair of Alistair/Ibis? If so, please stop giving me any more ideas — I’m already trying to write Alistair/Ibis/Lanvin!


	4. The Supernatural(or, Sorcery Rise)

 A/N: I’d been listening to Danse Macabre so I thought of this. This chapter is pure crack, but growing strange as it progresses. 

  Warning: May contain book 3 spoilers! 

 

  When Cera Hildebrand woke up the next day, it was, as usual, overcast, again. And before she could even register that yes, she was back in Norfolk and back in her own estate with Stephen and the others, Stansa’s appearance reminded her. 

 

  “I think I just spied Ibis and Lanvin havin’ breakfast together…” she implied, as Ceragot dressed quickly and checked the time. Wonderful that she didn’t over-sleep. 

 

  “If they’re together, at least it’s going to get Stephen and Jeffrey into a —” Cera and Stansa were on their way to the dining chamber when they heard a loud shriek of excitement, then a blast, and someone cracking up. Cera looked at Stansa. “— a frenzy, and just as expected.” 

 

  Meanwhile, Ibis and Lanvin Dusset were trying to act normal and continue eating, with Stephen and Jeffrey grinning with enough mirth and delight that Ibis was losing his appetite. 

 

  “I don’t think we’re s’posed to eat breakfast together anymore.” mumbled Lanvin into his croissant. 

  “Yes, Stephen Hildebrand and Jeffrey O’Cairn, we’re here, having breakfast. Together.” snapped Ibis, slamming down his mug and fortunately not breaking it, “it’s like you two, staying together all the time! Why, I ask you, don’t the others say that you two are in a relationship?!” 

  That finally got some sense into the two young sorcerers, that they dropped the matter of Ibis and Lanvin staying together, at least for now.  

 

*** 

 

  Later that day, Cera went out to go run some errands and Alistair was watching the news on Cera’s view screen. 

 

  “Any news about our place?” asked Korvo as Ibis was complaining about what happened at breakfast to Stansa, “I don’t know why, but I’m really having a bad feeling about this weather.” 

  Alistair looked up. “Something that is supernatural?” he asked. 

  “No, but it’s hard to say.” Korvo was sensitive to changes in weather and everything related, and that happened once when Lanvin’s trouble sprung up. 

 

  Meanwhile, Cera Hildebrand was at the town hall. Ever since last night when she and Korvo met each other via her own request, Korvo had told her about the disturbances he’s felt in his aura. 

 

  “It was the same feeling I had before the dark cult got to Lanvin.” he’d said quietly, when he and Cera were in his room, “it’s just so strange. No offense to you and Stephen, but I’ve had this feeling ever since we arrived here.” 

  Cera had to admit that she’d been worried, and it surely wasn’t because of the Wicca festival she mentioned. Wicca was a practice that used to be popular before the 22nd century, and it was way ancient compared to their technology and practices now. 

 

  Back in the present, Cera went up to the town hall, as overhead, the overcast weather was getting worse. All of a sudden, her Karmonphone vibrated and glowed. Alistair, aka Mr. Worrier If You Ever Get Close to Him. 

  “I’m alright, Ali,” she said, entering and shrugging off what Korvo said last night, “actually, I wanted to investigate what caused Korvo to have such a strong sense of…uneasiness?” 

 

  She could literally hear Alistair face-palming. 

  “He told me as well.” he answered, “I don’t know, but hope he’s just paranoid about traveling with us all of a sudden. All we did for him was help Lanvin, isn’t it?” 

  Cera nodded, feeling uneasy as well. Still, she wanted to know about what made Korvo have such a strong reaction. 

  Only what she found out wasn’t on her expectations list, at all. 

 

  The Norwich Town Hall was a really popular tourist attraction for the non-magic folks, and there used to also be a television show that was located right there, during the 21st century. And normally, Cera would’ve been delighted to just go in and admire how aesthetic the interior was, but this time, she was in for a total shock. 

 

  “…arminum corvis talicis,” way deeper inside the town hall, it was extremely dark, because apparently all the curtains were drawn, and the lights off. It seemed to Cera that she’d stepped into a portal, and was listening to the frightening chants of the dark cult again. 

 

  Through a door, there was the eerily familiar scene. A group of eight people, dressed head to toe similar to middle-eastern females — no offense to them, though — yet way more sinister, was standing around something, which bore a bright aura light. 

  The chanting grew erratic, as the aura suddenly turned color. And right on cue, it started raining outside, and grew even darker than before. 

 

  “Now, Mr. Curtis, you’ve disrupted us, and you’ve betrayed us by telling The Duo about Lanvin Dusset, and exactly what happened to him,” one of the hooded figures spoke, as the chanting finally stopped. 

  “Please, no…Lanvin…wasn’t he possessed?” Cera couldn’t believe it. Mr. Curtis was the one who informed her and Alistair about Lanvin, and the danger suddenly surrounding him, since he’d been the second leader to the Council, before his diagnosis of manic depression, a condition normally only non-magic folks have, and very rarely, do sorcerers get. 

  “You know very well that he’s going to be a great use to us.” a second figure spoke up, “he’s vulnerable enough for us. Last time, we tried to convince one of the Hildebrand siblings, but Vonnegut —” there was suddenly a hush sound through the group, “— investigated and destroyed our plans!” 

 

  As she watched, mesmerized, in the shadows of the town hall, Cera couldn’t believe it. Norfolk wasn’t safe anymore for Lanvin, if the group indeed was the dark cult. 

  “The artifacts…” she whispered, remembering how Stansa and Alistair got into a fight because of the latter’s utter hatred for Ibis. Eventually the artifacts were deemed not to be cursed by Ibis and Stansa. 

 

  “It’s too easy to frame it on him, and we’re all glad that he and his female is no longer of use to us!” a third figure spoke up, and the flame grew brighter. Cera couldn’t see who and what they were because of their hoods, covering them up. 

  “Killing Alistair Vonnegut is of no use, but we have to find Lanvin Dusset!” declared the leader, “then if possible, destroy all of them.” 

  “No, please!” Mr. Curtis was terrified at their words, “please…please don’t kill Lanvin! The Council needs him.” 

 

  Cera decided to stop watching as it came to this stage. Mr. Curtis was clearly on both sides, and the relevation that Ibis and Stansa used to be working for the dark cult, was too much to stand. 

  Terrified and running towards the front door just as the cult decided to separate, she immediately disappeared into a bright flash of white light. 

 

*** 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey were in the living room when a bright flash of white light nearly blinded them, then it dimmed and Cera was there, looking absolutely shaken. 

 

  “Stephen, Jeffrey, where’s Alistair?” she asked frantically. 

  “Oh, uh…Alistair is lecturing Ibis about slamming down a mug during breakfast.” said Stephen, cool as a cucumber, “why’re you so frantic again?” 

  Cera resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Alistair was indeed correct when he mentioned that his two young trainees were way too young when coming to telling them about the dark cult that has been terrorizing all of Sorcery World UK. 

 

  Disappearing into a bright white light again, Cera appeared upstairs and headed straight towards Alistair’s room, which currently contained Alistair, Ibis, Lanvin, and Korvo, which bothered her. 

 

  The door was ajar and she could hear them talking. 

  “I really hope that she didn’t run into something horrible,” Korvo. “I don’t know, but I really sense something telling me that we should leave here and go back to London.” 

  Cera cringed. Indeed Korvo was someone who could sense changes. She knocked and entered. 

 

  Everyone yelped when they saw her, fortunately still in one piece. 

  “Where were you?” asked Alistair, concerned again and no longer looking stern at Ibis, who was rolling his eyes, “I understand that you know this place extremely well, but because Korvo was getting agitated, we were getting worried.” 

  Cera sighed in relief on seeing all of them. Seems like even just witnessing the dark cult made her paranoid. 

 

  “OK, questions later. I have to tell you this, since the youngsters are not here.” she said, then began, “OK, so I was running errands when I noticed something off about the Norwich town hall, which is actually really close to where we are now. Apparently Korvo was right, there is a disturbance, and a great one too — it seems that the dark cult is here, and they’re looking for Lanvin again.” Here, she glanced at mentioned person, who looked totally frightened; her eyes softened and Ibis looked away, before he got ill again. 

  Korvo jumped up. “That’s why I said, Alistair, we should leave here immediately.” he said quickly, “I don’t even want to imagine what happened to him last time they stroke. It’s dangerous here, because of how close it is towards the town hall. No offense meant, though, Cera and Stephen.” 

 

*** 

 

  That night after curfew, Cera made sure that the whole mansion was secured with strong spells, and allowed both Alistair and Ibis to be with Lanvin, before anything horrible happened, especially when dealing with Korvo’s sentinel-like senses. 

 

  Ibis pretended to not care about Lanvin until Alistair went out of his room, did he turn to Lanvin. 

  “Why do they need you?” he asked quietly, keeping an eye on the ajar door, “what could they want from a sorcerer that used to be in the Council? It’s not like you’re their enemy — everyone from the good side are their enemy!” 

  Lanvin was still frightened, and Ibis didn’t really blame him, since it was the dark cult who forced him and Stansa to cause a disturbance through the time void, during the case of the cursed artifacts. 

 

  “Have you heard about the artifacts that was used in the past?” Ibis asked, after hearing Alistair’s voice saying something inaudible to hear to Cera, “it was the dark cult. They cursed the artifacts in order to trap us in the time loop.” 

  “Korvo tried to convince Alistair not to let Jeffrey and Stephen into the time void,” said Lanvin, finally lying down, “fortunately he listened, if not, heaven knows what’ll happen to them.” 

 

  Here, it was another of those times Ibis wanted to just hold Lanvin and never let go. He knew that was illogical, that he never had any feelings for Lanvin, at least externally. But internally, he found that he actually did love him, and found his antics alluring. 

 

  Giving in to what his internal self was saying, Ibis held on to Lanvin and closed his eyes, willing them to change back to their original color of aqua blue. Externally, he hated himself, but internally, he knew what he had been wanting for almost forever. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o  

 

End Chapter 4 

 

 A/N 2: I know if it’s slightly sentimental when coming to write about Lanvin; but because he’s still suffering from the shock and trauma from his time with the dark cult, it cannot really be helped.


	5. Ocean Hex

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yes, from now on, you may have noticed that I’m no longer following my Ibis/Alistair Vonnegut and Lanvin Dusset/OC route, because it just felt slightly wrong, and it’s good for Ibis to care for once about Lanvin. It’s still developing, and from now on, you may notice some chemistry between Alistair and Korvo… 
> 
> A/N 2: Also, it’s kind of revenge material — Lanvin Dusset/Ibis, that is — when following the RPFs route. Please enjoy this chapter.

PAIRING: Alistair Vonnegut/Korvo(pre-pre-slash) 

 

  It was finally a sunny day the next day, and Stephen Hildebrand and Jeffrey O’Cairn requested them to all go to the seaside. 

  “Please? It’s much closer to where we lived when we were living here?” Stephen mustered his best puppy eyes and looked at his sister, Cera Hildebrand, expectantly. “Before you bought this mansion, we used to —” 

 

  Finally, Cera cracked. “Fine,” she snapped, after Stephen and Jeffrey started chanting ‘can we?’, “anyways, Korvo is right. If the cult  is practicing whatever enchantment they want inside the town hall, it’s much safer close to the non-magic town.” 

 

  Not only the natural scenery of greens and fields alongside the countryside and suburbs of Norfolk was extremely aesthetic to the eyes and absolutely stunning and attractive for non-magic tourists, the county was also extremely popular towards sorcerers like Alistair’s group. 

  On their way to the seaside, they were riding the sightseeing bus full of non-magic folks, who all seem to be tourists, and were chatting and oooh-ing like Stephen and Jeffrey at the scenery as it rushed past them like gentle rapids of plush green. 

 

  “It’s like gentle brushes on a canvas if we go any faster,” said Korvo, his dark eyes wistful as he turned to Alistair, “you really are fortunate to have Cera and Stephen as your companion and trainee.” 

  “Yes, until she’s completely paranoid and he’s completely off his rocker,” agreed Alistair sarcastically. 

 

  Korvo turned away and decided to check on Stephen and Cera, and sure enough, the former was telling Jeffrey all about his time in his home county before they met. But unlike him, Cera was obviously still disturbed by what she witnessed yesterday. 

  “What about Stephen and Jeffrey?” asked Stansa as she and Cera were discussing about their motives. “Yes, Ibis and I used to be inside that cult, but until we found out about the artifacts, we decided to leave, since if we didn’t, they’d kill us because we failed to complete their task.” 

 

  Korvo decided to stop listening and just keep an eye on Lanvin, when Ibis wasn’t even watching him. Sure enough, Ibis joined in their talk that was getting darker and darker in theme. 

  “We tried to explain, remember?” he said, getting excited, “actually, it was understandable why Alistair thought that we cursed the relics — because we were members from the cult. The disturbance was caused by us, because we couldn’t seem to break the curse.” 

  “In fact, we were being used by them.” concluded Stansa, “if they want to kill Lanvin, that simply means they want us. It’s literally fatal for leaving them. We simply never expected Mr. Curtis to be one of them.” 

 

*** 

 

  When they arrived at their holiday tavern house near the seaside, the small town were bustling with activity. It seemed that the non-magic folks of Norfolk always decided that said place was not as aesthetic to the eye anymore, since they’ve seen it all through their eyes, from when they were young, all the way till now. 

 

  Having their tea while staying on the veranda, Stansa popped the question even Korvo was thinking about. 

  “What I want to know, is, why don’t you hide Lanvin in non-magic Norfolk or non-magic London?” 

  There was a sound of agreement all through their group, until Alistair questioned back, “what’ll we say if the Council suddenly needs him? I understand that the Council never cared about his condition.” 

  “He left.” suddenly, from the edge of the veranda, where Lanvin, Ibis, and Korvo were having refreshments, Korvo said, after listening to them for quite some time, “he suggested that we’d better gather our forces since I felt the disturbance earlier, way before the dark cult caught up on us, it’ll be too late if we prepared late. The Council leader didn’t listen, and questioned about his highs and lows, deeming that it was the high speaking. That was when he decided to leave permanently. Alistair, I’m telling you, the Council is corrupted by their powers.” 

 

  They were silent for some time, simply enjoying their moment of peace and contentment since what happened yesterday, that caused them all to be extremely shaken; until all of a sudden, multiple clouds formed on the sky and the day became slightly dimmer. 

 

  Korvo looked up, a wave of uneasiness surrounding him and threatening to burst out. 

  “Seems like the weather’s changing again,” remarked Lanvin, fortunately without any anxiousness. And to Cera, he asked, “so Norfolk rains all the time?” 

  “It does rain quite often, but normally if there’s sunlight, the weather wouldn’t change this rapidly.” she answered, also looking up as all of a sudden, it became overcast and got darker and darker. 

 

  And as expected, the non-magical alert system was way more sensitive than the alert system in Sorcery World Norfolk. 

  “Alert! Rain day comin’ soon — seaside closed until r’openin’!” the loudspeaker near the seaside shouted, stressing every single word at the end of the sentence…almost, “all seaside attractions closed until rain subsides!” 

 

  Cera sighed at the message. “OK, we’d better go back to our rooms inside the holiday house until we figure out what’s prompting the dark cult on doing this again.”  she told everyone, then paid the fees, using her non-magic money, and they all entered the tavern. 

 

*** 

 

  Things were fine in the tavern, except for the rain pattering on the windows. 

  “Are we really going back to London?” in the common room, Alistair was asking, “and don’t all of you think it’s strange that they caused an ocean hex?” 

 

  Alistair, Korvo, and Ibis were lounging uneasily in the common room, while Cera was in her room. Stephen, Jeffrey, and Lanvin were outside and trying to break whatever the curse was on the weather. 

  All of a sudden, Korvo’s karmonphone vibrated. Stephen. 

 

  “It seems that the storm is raging on, and we don’t know how long will our abilities stand against it!” he cried. Most of his words were already drowned down by the sounds of  the rain and wind, with the seaside going bonkers. “Also, (don’t tell my sister this), I’m not sure whether we’re surviving this round.”  

 

  Outside, it was almost like a hurricane, but much calmer, only it was raining hard with some thunder and lightning. Lanvin, Stephen, and Jeffrey already made an invisible bubble around the nearby seaside, just in case the waves destroy half of the taverns and small houses. 

 

  A flash of bright, aqua blue aura sparkles surrounded the area when the lightning illuminated the entire seaside, with the waves larger than ever. 

  “Not yet.” said Stephen, when Jeffrey tried to go closer, “the spells have to first settle, otherwise till disrupt everything we did.” 

 

  The disturbances in the air was greater now, and from inside the tavern, Korvo could feel it in waves. So meanwhile inside the tavern they were staying in until Lanvin and the two youngsters were trying to convert the curse, Korvo and Alistair were already being way too close for comfort, and fortunately without Ibis’s wandering eyes to see. 

  “Will they convert it in time, d’you think?” asked Korvo, as he and Alistair watched from a window on the second floor, where Cera, Stansa, Ibis, Korvo, Alistair, and the two youngsters were staying. “Suddenly I’m glad that Cera is watching from her room.” 

  “Three sorcerers working together to convert this is much better than letting only Lanvin or only Jeffrey and Stephen to deal with the conversion,” Alistair replied, finally looking at Korvo with his intense silver eyes. 

 

  Korvo flushed and looked away. He didn’t understand since when, did he suddenly find Alistair Vonnegut so alluring, almost like Ibis finding Lanvin, who he usually couldn’t stand, so attractive. Alistair was extremely empathetic, of course, and could always see the good in others. And he worries way too much, maybe because it was his duty to make sure Jeffrey and Stephen do not get hurt or injured. 

 

  What finally dragged Korvo out of his reverie was the sense that the air was lighter, and the weather was clearing up. And at that moment, there was a flash of white light, and Lanvin and the two youngsters appeared, totally drenched to the skin because of the rain. 

  “Oh, my god, you’d better get dry.” said Korvo to Lanvin, “before Ibis freaks out and kills us.” 

  “Also, please don’t get ill,” added Jeffrey with a smile. He was hit by a Silencing spell as Lanvin entered his room, shutting the door. 

 

  There was an awkward silence before Alistair spoke. 

  “OK, and shouldn’t you two be going to your room?” he asked, sounding like a professor again, “and Stephen, you don’t want your sister to find you like you’re now.” 

  Korvo smiled and Stephen smirked. “Right, of course.” he agreed, then dragged Jeffrey off to their shared room in order to clean up. 

 

*** 

 

  Later that afternoon, Cera met everyone at the common room. 

  “I hate to break it to you, but we really have to leave here, right now.” she said, albeit apologetically, “it’s actually for our safety, not only of Lanvin’s. Because according to my Karmonphone, we’re apparently not the only sorcerers staying in this tavern.” 

 

  That caused a stir among the group. 

  “What d’you mean, we’re not the only ones?” demanded Korvo, “we have to be the only ones — the others are all non-magic folks!” 

  “I almost forgot to tell you this, but the cult has spread out,” said Cera, before Alistair could speak, “they can be anywhere. They can even be listening to our conversation right now. So I’m telling you this: we have to take the express back, again — we don’t want the disguised sorcerers know that we indeed are the ones they’re after.” 

  So that’s how come they were in the train station of Norwich again, after just arriving yesterday. 

 

  The dark cult did separate, but fortunately, they never knew that Alistair Vonnegut’s group were actually in Norfolk, so the only sorcerer from their cult was the double agent, Mr. Curtis. Only Cera didn’t have to know that. 

 

  When they arrived at the Norwich train station, and over to the sorcery world NTS, Cera sighed in relief at finally not giving any attention to any dark cult members, except maybe Mr. Curtis. 

  And that was suspected as soon as they arrived into each other’s compartments, thanks to Stephen’s habit of checking his karmonphone regularly. 

 

  “I think we’re having company, guys,” he said, after closing the door of his, Jeffrey, and Cera’s compartment, which was right next to Alistair, Ibis, Korvo, and Lanvin’s. “Seems like Mr. Curtis is following us for some reason.” 

 

  Cera cringed as she remembered what she saw. The dark cult interrogating Mr. Curtis — if that really is his name. 

  “I wonder why?” asked Jeffrey, “if he’s on this train as well, I don’t suggest Lanvin to even be in the corridors.” 

 

  When they finally started moving, Cera tried to ignore her younger brother and Jeffrey, since they had no idea about the dark cult that has been causing havoc every single moment; and apparently they were enjoying it. No training and continuos adventure were their thing, and Cera thought that taking a much-needed break was much more her thing. 

 

*** 

 

  When they were in the middle of their fourth station, the train suddenly stopped, and all the lights went off. 

  Inside Stephen and Jeffrey’s compartment, Jeffrey was stunned. 

 

  “Ummmm, am I the only one who’s finding this strange?” he asked, looking from the window to his two companions, “we’re in the middle of a station!” 

  That got Stephen’s attention, as usual. “Tha’s strange…” he looked out of the window, “great, the weather’s changing again. Also, I think we’re having some visitors.” 

 

  Right on cue, Cera’s karmonphone vibrated. “Yes, Cera Hildebrand here, who’s it?” Cera got it and asked. 

  “Randall Curtis here.” it was Mr. Curtis. Cera nearly dropped her device. 

  “Why’re you contacting me?!” she hissed, turning away from Stephen and Jeffrey, who were looking out of the window. It wasn’t any weird creatures, thank goodness, just rain and a brewing storm, again. 

  “Cera, please, you have to take Lanvin out of Norfolk. The dark cult had a meeting — they were thinking of ways to no doubt bring him more harm than before. I’m outta that cult, they’re killing off anyone whenever they please.” Randall was desperate now, “is Lanvin with Korvo at all? Make sure that you leave Norfolk immediately, and make sure that Korvo and Ibis are with Lanvin constantly when he needs to go out. He has to be safe, and I trust Ibis and Korvo. Stay safe as well.” 

  “Uh, we’re on the way back, only we’re stuck in the middle of two stations,” said Cera, feeling overwhelmed by the information, “oh, Randall, how can Alistair even trust you anymore? You’re working for the cult, and I saw you two days ago when I went to the town hall!” 

  “I tell you, Cera, I’m done with them.” said the other sorcerer, “if they noticed that I’m following you, they’ll praise me. If they find out I’m giving you ways to avoid them, they’ll kill me on the spot. I don’t care anymore, please, just stay safe. You and Lanvin.” 

  When they hung up, Cera closed her eyes and tried to not tear up. Mr. Curtis always had this effect on her, especially after talking about Lanvin. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o  

 

End chapter 5 

 


	6. The Curtis Effect(or, A New Ally)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: OK, I have no idea what happened, and how it started being just a collection of simple vignettes to a full-blown multi-chapter story. Apparently I kind of liked how it turned out, so enjoy this sixth chapter! 
> 
> A/N 2: And yes, you may have already noticed the title of the chapter. Mr. Curtis is their newest ally, ever since the incident in the town hall of Norwich. Also, what is it between him and Cera Hildebrand? Yes, there is some implied Mr. Curtis/Cera Hildebrand relationship!

The next day, when they finally arrived in Sorcery World London, UK; or rather, when they arrived in London later the previous day, via aura transport, to Alistair Vonnegut’s flat in Sorcery World London, Cera Hildebrand went straight back to her own room of the flat, with her brother Stephen Hildebrand, and said brother’s best friend, Jeffrey O’Cairn, looking weird at her retreating figure. 

 

  “Have I said something?” mumbled Korvo, after some heavy silence as the door to a room upstairs shut loudly. 

  “For some reason, I don’t think it’s either of you,” Stephen said back, looking at each of them, with Alistair and Ibis going into the study and Stansa also going upstairs to her own room. 

  “I guess I’d better ask her?” she asked, before she walked up the stairs, “what happened when you three were together?” 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey exchanged a glance. Better now than never. 

  “She got an…ummm…call from Mr. Curtis, saying that we should keep Lanvin safe.” said Jeffrey quickly, “it’s not that bad, really, we swear, we just heard parts of the conversation.” 

  Stansa’s eyes widened at them, and they both gulped. Oh…no. They were dead meat for sure if that went into Cera’s ears. 

  “IBIS!” she shrieked, “I need to talk to you! In my room, please!” 

 

  Meanwhile, in the study, Ibis, Lanvin, Korvo, and Alistair were discussing about their actions on whatever Cera told them when they were still in Norfolk. 

  “I say we have to stay low.” said Korvo, pacing around the room, which was, as usual, clustered with books and artifacts that are not cursed, “Lanvin couldn’t go out alone; it’s either with me, Ibis, or yourself, Alistair.” 

  Alistair walked over to the monitor that was on the side of the study. 

  “Something must have happened in the train, and Cera’s acting strange ever since we arrived back here,” he said, swiping and pointing at the screen, and all of a sudden, a 3-D image appeared. 

 

  “Stansa mentioned about asking the driver, but she said the corridor was all pitch black after peeking through a crack after pulling the door open a fraction.” said Ibis, and Alistair swiped again, revealing the interior of the train. 

  “OK, so this is our compartment,” he pointed at a blue dot, “and that,” he pointed to another blue dot, “is Cera, Stephen, and Jeffrey’s compartment. There has to be a reason the train stopped and the lights going off.” 

  Both Ibis and Lanvin shuddered at the possibility of what may have happened. It’s either dark creatures like dementors or something like that. 

 

  All of a sudden, Stansa’s voice rang out. “IBIS!” she shrieked, “I need to talk to you! In my room, please!” 

  Ibis and Korvo looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Apparently even Stansa was paranoid. 

  “Fine, I’ll go to her,” he finally said, retreating from the study, “Alistair, please look after Lanvin, the train incident is really spooky. Korvo, look after Lanvin, please, as well.” 

 

*** 

 

  When Ibis and Stansa were finally in Stansa’s room, the latter looked at the former. 

 

  “What’s going on with Cera?” she asked. 

  Ibis wanted to send a spell her way just as she asked the question. 

  “Whyever should you even care about Hildebrand?” he snapped, his aqua eyes changing colors again, “she must have just been in shock about what happened. You know that deep inside, she always depended on Alistair’s powers and abilities, otherwise she wouldn’t’ve ended up till now.” 

  “I have to tell you about this, Ibis, seems like Swallow contacted Cera, and was overheard by Stephen and Jeffrey.” said Stansa quickly and quietly, “according to Stephen, Swallow wants Lanvin safe. That’s good, but what if he still works for the cult? I don’t want this to be a trap like last time.” 

 

  That caused Ibis to take a double take. “Randall?” he whispered, eyes widening even more than before, “what if Alistair knows? He and Korvo are still downstairs.” 

  Stansa grabbed his arm, causing him to jump. “What’re they doing?” 

  Ibis gulped. He shouldn’t have said that. “Uh…checking the monitor on what happened to the train?” 

  “If Swallow really is on Alistair’s side, he should know. I need to ask Cera on this!” and with that, she disappeared in a flash of blue aura. 

 

  Meanwhile, in Cera’s room, Cera was contacting Mr. Curtis again. 

  “I don’t know whether to trust you or not, really.” she said into her karmonphone, “we’re back in London, and you?” 

  “I have to believe that they’re still on your trail,” said the other sorcerer, “what happened on the train, it was something worse than the cult. Dementors.” 

 

  That sent a ice cold chill through Cera. If dementors were on the train, that may mean why it was so cold all of a sudden, and why Stephen remarked that they may be receiving more people. 

 

  “But why?” 

  “They were sent by the Council, according to the cult leader, but I don’t think that’s a fact. Also, I have to warn you on this, they’re planning something worse — doppelgänger seductions.” said Mr. Curtis, “that means that any member of the dark cult can be disguised as you, speak like you, and have identical behaviours as you.” 

 

  Cera was feeling more and more terrified at whatever the dark cult was thinking of. Doppelgänger Seduction was the darkest of all sorcery, primarily used by dark sorcerers to swipe any sorcerers into their infamous cult. It can also be used in a positive way, but is way more dangerous. 

 

  “Alistair mentioned it before,” she said quietly, “when we met for the first time. Anyways, all the spells are secure here, and there’s a questioning if there’s any sorcerer who comes here with no reason.” 

  “Did you even disable aura travel?” Mr. Curtis was sounding more and more demanding, and Cera understood why, “you have to disable it now. Without that, they cannot use Apparation to get in or out. Secure systems should also be updated.” 

  “I understand. I’ll tell Alistair immediately.” Cera agreed, then just as she and Mr. Curtis hung up, Stansa appeared in a flash of blue aura. 

 

  Cera’s eyes darkened, but not in a way that rivaled Ibis’s ability. 

  “Why’re you here?” she asked, total worry on her expression. 

  “I was told that Swallow contacted you?” Stansa asked, cautiously, just in case she accidentally tells that Stephen told her. 

 

  Turning away, Cera nodded. “True,…wait, Swallow?” she turned back to Stansa. 

  Stansa nearly forgot about the fact that Cera had almost zero idea about the cult’s over-use of code names. 

  “That’s the code name of Mr. Curtis,” she explained, “he did contact you, isn’t it?” 

 

  Cera looked even harder at her. “How did you even know about his contact to me?” 

  Stansa cringed. “It was Stephen, he said he overheard you when we were in the train.” 

 

  That wasn’t new, according to Cera; her brother always overheard whatever conversations she had, either it’s with Alistair or not. 

  “I understand, Stansa, we’d better tell this to Alistair.” she said, going towards the door, then turned back around, “oh, yes, I think I’d need your help. We have to disable Auratic travel.” 

 

*** 

 

  The next day, Alistair got a call on his karmonphone by Mr. Curtis, telling the same information as he did to Cera yesterday. 

  “What I want to know is, did you tell Cera this word for word.” said Alistair, standing up from his chair while watching Stephen and Jeffrey practice their spells. 

 

  Stephen suddenly stopped and nodded towards Alistair. 

  “Apparently he wants to warn Alistair as well,” he hissed, listening closely, “what’ll we tell Ibis, Korvo, and Lanvin?” 

 

  From near the window of the study, Alistair was listening to Mr. Curtis’s advice and that’s about it, but Jeffrey was still skeptical. 

  “…disabled the transport,” Alistair was saying, “later on, we’ll make sure to give the entire flat a check-up.” 

  And that was what happened the entire day. An entire flat check-up, and making sure that the flat was properly secured. 

 

  Mr. Curtis arrived around noontime, just the time he’d notified the group that he’d be coming, when Korvo and Ibis were holding the fort, which is, in its own case, when Alistair, Lanvin, Jeffrey, Stephen, and Cera were over at the sorcerers’ lair. 

  Korvo was the one who opened the door when a knocking started. 

 

  “Oh, right, you’re here now,” he said, still feeling suspicious because of what happened since the case with Lanvin. 

  Randall entered and found that both Ibis and Korvo were there, with the Hildebrand siblings, Lanvin, and Alistair away. 

 

  “Where’re the others?” he asked, looking around the flat, “so you’ve disabled all forms of transport from this place?” 

  Ibis looked up. “Yes, Swallow,” he said, feeling exasperated, “if you want Alistair Vonnegut and his clan to be convinced that you’re no longer working for the cult, you’d better join his time void traveling and converting everything that once gone wrong. Stansa and I proved that we’ve left by telling him about Lanvin, before we even met said person.” 

 

  Korvo looked between them. It seemed that everyone, who were, and still are, inside the dark cult of sorcerers, call each other by their code names. Alistair had mentioned that before to him when he and Cera got to go visit Lanvin. 

 

  “Why the code names?” he blurted before he could stop himself. 

  “The dark cult doesn’t want the Council to know their true identities, Korvo,” before Randall could reply, Ibis beat him to it. “That’s why, Mr. Curtis here, is known as Swallow to the cult, and Mr. Curtis to the Council. Hardly any one know his true name.” 

  Korvo nodded. “O…K, but I’d better still understand the actual purpose,” he said back, retreating to the study to check on the monitor. That was too fascinating, and if he could understand the purpose of hiding identities, it may be easier to find their weakness. 

 

  “Korvo’s with you?” when Korvo left, Randall asked. 

  Ibis rolled his eyes. “Right, since day one,” he agreed, thinking back to the time when he and Korvo first met. They used to clash, but now, no more, since there’s a lot of much more important things afoot. “Apparently he was sent by the Council to keep an eye on Lanvin.” 

  “Where is he, by the way?” Randall asked again. 

  “Lanvin?” 

  “Yeah.” 

  “The last thing I remember, is Alistair and he taking the others to go to the sorcerers’ lair.” 

 

  Randall’s eyes widened. “Ibis, they can’t. No, it’s not safe enough,” he suddenly said quickly, taking his karmonphone out, “they’d better come back here early. According to the cult, they’ll be there around…” 

  All of a sudden, Korvo’s voice shouted, “IBIS, YOU’D BETTER COME HERE! Something’s happened!” 

 

  Ibis and Randall rushed to the study. “What happened?” cried Randall. 

  “You’d better see this, both of you,” he looked up from the monitor, “one of you, call Alistair immediately, the dark cult is in London now, and is heading towards where they are at!” 

 

  Ibis and Randall exchanged a glance. 

  “What really happened?” Ibis demanded, “he just said so and now it happened?” 

  Korvo was feeling uneasy all over again, and it wasn’t because of Randall or Ibis’s presence. It was the same feeling when he felt during their time in Norfolk. 

  “I don’t know, but one of the sorcerers who were close to them has touched an artifact, and said artifact was —” Korvo didn’t even have to finish his sentence before Ibis started getting agitated. 

 

  “Don’t tell me it’s who I’m thinking of,” mumbled Randall, when Ibis failed to transport away. “Ibis, they disabled it, because of protection.” 

  “Great, and we have to go over there now!” finally remembering, Ibis casted a spell over himself, changing his clothes, and went out the front door, with Randall trailing behind him, but not before telling Korvo to take care of everything and keep safe. 

 

  Meanwhile, Alistair and his group were on the way back from the lair when they passed an antique shop. All of a sudden, the door opened and two sorcerers walked out, arguing about something. 

  “Hamish?” asked Lanvin when he saw one of them. He turned to Alistair. “Why’s he here?” 

  Alistair, Stephen, Jeffrey, and Cera turned around and spotted the two sorcerers, still deep in their argument that they didn’t even notice Lanvin. 

 

  “…tell you you’ll regret it so much!” one of them was saying, “and remember what Alistair and Cera did? They converted the spell before buying it!” 

  “Gawd, Jacen, just give it to me!” Hamish Frye was saying, glaring at his friend. Jacen was holding a small white bag, which apparently had an artifact in it. “Alistair and Cera are skilled and they knew about the curse! As if the dark cult is rising again, you! Can you not be paranoid for once?” 

 

  What happened afterwards was just too terrifying to describe in detail. Hamish tried to snatch the bag over, and accidentally touched the artifact inside, which made him collapse right then and there. Jacen shrieked in surprise and alerted Alistair and his group. 

 

  “What in the world…?” began Jeffrey. 

  “I told him ever since we went inside the shop that artifacts may be cursed, because the news have been saying the dark cult is rising, but he didn’t listen!” cried Jacen desperately, with Hamish’s prone figure lying on the ground, with some other sorcerers standing around with their eyes wide and mesmerized by the information on the dark cult. “He said that the news on the cult is fake, but it’s definitely not!” 

  Cera looked at the artifact, which was on the ground, when all of a sudden, Hamish’s figure flew up into the air, with his expression serene and arms wide open, when all of a sudden, his eyes flew open and he shrieked shrilly, successfully scaring the spectators away, while his body started having extreme seizures. That happened three more times before he fell back onto the floor. 

 

  “According to Ibis, that was exactly what happened to someone in that castle, Ali,” she said gravely, looking up again from Hamish’s prone figure, “we’d better get him to St. Barton’s before the cult catches up.” 

 

  Stephen knelt down and looked at the artifact, but didn’t touch it, knowing what will happen. He levitated off the ground and looked at it even more clearly. 

  “It seems that the cult likes to use tripods as curse items, Jeff, what d’you make of it?” he asked, carefully putting it back inside the bag. “Also, if I remembered correctly, that antique shop was never here previously.” 

 

  Jeffrey, who was hugging Lanvin and trying to be comforting, froze. “WHAT?” 

  Stephen looked up. “Yes, we’d better get back before sundown.” 

 

*** 

 

  That evening, Randall called a meeting with them during dinnertime. It all went smoothly until Lanvin started crying again. 

  Jeffrey gently put an arm around him as Korvo looked concerned. 

 

  “Something happened to Hamish Frye, the sorcerer who defeated the former leader of the cult,” explained Cera, looking up when there was silence from everyone. “We never expected that this new leader was chosen so quickly.” 

  “Hamish?!” shouted Randall, and even Korvo was stunned by the information. “He got cursed by the artifact?! Oh, my god, ever since he was admitted as the temporary second in command for the Council, he’s been so reckless.” 

  “Where’s he now?” asked Korvo, doing his best to not shoot a superior look at Randall, but still, he said to said person, “I told you my senses are always right.” 

 

  Alistair closed his eyes and tried to calm down, since everyone else were firing questions and Cera was trying her best to answer. 

  “He’s at St. Barton’s sorcery hospital, the same as Lanvin when he had his episode of dangerous lows,” he answered, then opened his eyes and looked hard at both Randall and Korvo. “Please, none of us are allowed to go see him now, because the healers need time to reverse the curse, then convert it back.” 

 

  There was another silence, and Stephen spoke. 

  “Can anyone tell Jeffrey and I exactly what’s going on now?” he asked to no one in particular, “first, is what happened over at Norfolk, then, it’s Hamish Frye. What’s next?” 

  Korvo looked at Cera. “This is what happens if you don’t tell them!” he exclaimed, “what if the cult suddenly went after them?” 

  Cera ignored him and Ibis spoke up. “You know very clearly that Stephen and Jefferey are both too young to understand this,” he said, forcing himself to not think about how he rubbed off of Cera and Alistair, “they are under Alistair’s eyesight all day long. And if they want two youngsters, they’d contact us.” 

 

  All of a sudden, Alistair said firmly, “Stephen, Jeffery, please leave for some time. I need to talk to them.” 

  Korvo stood up abruptly. “You cannot keep them oblivious to our condition any longer, Alistair, d’you even understand this?!” he yelled. 

  “Korvo, calm down!” said Randall, pulling Korvo back down. 

  “They’re too young — they’re still teenagers!” Alistair shouted back, “if Cera or I tell them, how will they fight back, with this little training? If you’re willing to teach and train them, I’d tell them all about our condition right now.” 

 

  “There’s no need to tell, we know already,” suddenly, Stephen spoke, “there was an antique shop, where Jacen and Hamish were shopping in. The antique shop was never there before, and it didn’t look new. I’m sure that’s where the dark cult is staying. They want Hamish to be weakened because they remembered what happened last time when he destroyed their former leader. Without Hamish, they’ve a green light to Lanvin.” 

  Alistair and Cera exchanged a look. Stephen and Jeffrey already knew, and was pretending not to. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o  

 

End chapter 6 

 

 A/N 3: Now that Hamish is accidentally cursed by the artifact…now what?


	7. Sorcery and the Charming Spirit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: After Hamish Frye is cursed and still recovering, the gang has to go to the Room of the Requiem to summon the spirit of the artifacts. Will it succeed?   
>  WARNING: May contain spoilers for book 2 of the Community Trilogy!

 The next day, when it was way early in the morning, around 6-ish, Cera Hildebrand over-heard her brother, Stephen Hildebrand, and his best friend and partner-in-crime(actually more like the latter than the former), Jeffrey O’Cairn, discussing about something that reminded her her first ever adventure with Alistair Vonnegut. 

 

  “…the room of requirements?” Jeffrey was asking as he prepared a Waking restorative in the kitchen. Cera hid in the shadows. It was easier to hide after Randall Curtis made them disable the aura transport they all use to get to places. “Do Alistair and Cera know about this?” 

  “I’m actually not even s’posed to tell ya,” said Stephen, getting out of the kitchen as Cera immediately casted an Invisible spell on herself, her heart in her mouth. 

 

  The youngsters were preparing breakfast 0n Alistair’s dining table, and also made restoratives for everyone. Cera shook her head fondly; sometimes her brother and Jeffrey were like mother hens, always helping out but denying it whenever Alistair asks them. 

 

  “It’s called the Room of the Requiem,” Stephen was saying, sitting down opposite Jeffrey, “I overheard Cera telling Alistair that when they first met, which was, at the same time, the first time we met him.” 

  “We’ve never been there!” Jeffrey exclaimed, and Stephen immediately shushed him, “me sister wakes up way earlier than Al’stair, and you’d better not reveal the fact that I told you about me eavesdroppin’ them.” 

 

  They ate in silence, before Jeffrey broke the silence again. 

  “OK, I’m going to the study to check on the monitor about this room,” he said, standing up and leaving Stephen alone. “there has to be a reason why they don’t want us to know about it.” 

  Stephen looked up. “What other reason is there, Jeff? Other than its connection to the dark cult?” 

 

  From the morning shadows, Cera couldn’t believe it. It seemed that Korvo was right, it really wasn’t a good idea to not tell the youngsters about the dark cult, and how come it’s better not to mention them. 

 

  “Fine, fine, I guess we’d better interrogate them when they wake up.” said Jeffrey instead, then went to the study, leaving the siblings behind. 

 

  Nervously and fearing that Stephen would’ve noticed her if she made any type of noise, Cera edged towards the bottom of the stairs of Alistair’s flat, then went up carefully, just as Stephen looked up, right at her, without seeing her. After some time of agonizing and awkward silence, Stephen looked back down and she ran back to the rooms, breaking the spell of invisibility. 

 

*** 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey didn’t reveal the fact that they made the breakfast, again, and it was Lanvin who asked. 

  “Nope,” smiled Stephen, elbowing Jeffrey to be quiet, “when we got down, we found Cera already awake and she made us breakfast! Awesome, isn’t it!” 

 

  Cera closed her eyes. It was part truth, what Stephen said, that she did help in making some of the breakfast, when she remembered that they wasn’t supposed to see her. 

  “You saw me?” she cried, her eyes wide. 

  Ibis smirked at Stansa and Korvo cracked up. 

  “Isn’ it obvious, sis?” grinned Stephen, positively beaming right now, “we saw you in the kitchen before chatting about whatever happened yesterday.” 

 

  That conversation continued for some time before Alistair finally announced to everyone about their plan for today. 

  “Stephen, Jeffrey, you two are going with Mr. Curtis to visit Hamish and make sure that he’s recovering good; Cera, you and I are going There again.” he said, looking from the trainees to Cera, “Ibis, Stansa, Korvo, and Lanvin? You four look out for us. Actually, no — Korvo and Lanvin, please follow Stephen and Jeffrey to go visit Hamish. If the dark cult is spreaded out, we can’t have them seeing Lanvin in the open.” 

 

  Stephen grinned again and flung his arm around Lanvin and hugged him close. Ever since they found out about the cursed artifact, they’ve been close. 

  “I’ll make sure none of the dark cult members get close to us, promise, Alistair!” he beamed, with Lanvin blushing and Korvo smirking. “So when’re we leaving?” 

  Ibis stood up. “I say we’d better go now, and please meet Mr. Curtis near the sorcery hospital, Stephen and company.” he smiled good-naturedly, with Alistair cringing at last at his straightforwardness. 

 

  When Lanvin, Stephen, Korvo, and Jeffrey went on their way to St. Barton’s, Stephen wouldn’t stop talking about his discovery of the antique shop. That continued until they entered the entrance from non-magic London to Sorcery World London. Because he spotted the shop again, this time closed down. 

  “I told you, din’t I?” he hissed to Jeffrey, stopping in his tracks, “I’m certain that the cursed artifact is specially for Hamish, just to give them a green light to Lanvin.” 

 

  Jeffrey looked carefully at the antique shop. Based on what the sign said, it was out of orders, which meant that it needed some repairs. 

  “It’s not closed down, Steph, it’s just under construction,” he said back, “and from the look of it, there’s not any suspicious act —” 

 

  All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of purple aura light, and there was a robed sorcerer lying on the ground, obviously stunned. A small group of sorcerers were already around him, murmuring and whispering in fear. 

 

  Jeffrey turned around and spotted the scene. 

  “Uh, Stephen…I think we’ve got trouble.” he mumbled before there was another great flash of light and three more robed sorcerers were struck down. Stephen turned and was stunned. The dark cult was indeed in the shadows, and it really was a smart decision of Alistair for making them take Lanvin along. 

 

  From near the crowd, Lanvin and Korvo were on high alert, before the leader of the cult appeared. Lanvin was terrified, but understood that that wasn’t the time to freak out. 

  “We knew that if Hamish Fry was struck down, we’d get you here again,” he spoke, not yet taking off his hood. 

 

  From overhead, the weather was changing again, just as the leader spoke again, but with much more venom than ever. 

  “Mr. Curtis betrayed us, and told you about us, didn’t he?!” he hissed, as the weather suddenly became overcast. “The Council will never forgive you, Lanvin, for actually joining us, but it was your choice.” 

  Korvo glared at the leader of the cult darkly. “How did you even know that we’re in London?!” he shouted, sparks flying around him and Lanvin, “he told you, didn’t he?!” 

 

  Before the cult leader could reply, there was another bright flash of white light, and Randall appeared. His lightning powers were astounding when used on the cult. 

  “You harmed the only one who could defeat your new cult, I’m afraid,” he said calmly, pushing Lanvin and Korvo away from them, just as several of the spectators were caught by the members. “If you want Lanvin, you’d better defeat us first! Then Alistair!” 

 

*** 

 

  Meanwhile, the other group were almost to the Room of the Requiem, which was below ground level in the Department of Sorcery. 

  “The weather’s changing again,” said Stansa when she looked up at the sky. It was mostly sunny, then before they knew it, it became overcast. “The dark cult is near now, so be careful.” 

 

  They continued walking until finally arriving at one of the turbo lifts as soon as they entered the building. 

  “OK, this is where Cera and I’ll be leaving you two for some time, until we contact you via Karmonphone,” said Alistair, pushing the button to make the lift get down, “the cult could be anywhere, so be extremely careful. They know the Doppelgänger Seduction curse, so mostly beware of that.” 

  Stansa and Ibis nodded. “Alright, good luck to you, Alistair and Cera,” said the former, and both mentioned persons entered the lift. 

 

  They were going down when all of a sudden, Alistair’s Karmonphone vibrated, then glowed. Korvo. 

  “Yes, Alistair Vonnegut here, who is —” before Alistair could even finish his introduction, the other side cried, “Alistair, you’d better send Ibis and Stansa right here, the cult has this place frickin’ surrounded! I don’t know how long are we able to hold them down!” 

  Alistair and Cera looked at each other. That was basically like last time, before they eventually met Lanvin. 

 

  “I’ll tell Ibis immediately,” he answered, after they arrived at their floor of the department, “Cera and I are now at the Department. We’ll need the passcode for the summoning.” 

 

  Alistair could literally hear Korvo rolling his eyes at the request, since the former has been to the Room of the Requiem before. 

  “3, 4, 2, 1, 0.” said Korvo, and Alistair could hear shrieks and cries from the device. “OK, Randall, Jeffrey, Stephen, and Lanvin can really not hold them for long, and Ibis and Stansa has to come. NOW, Alistair!” 

  Just like that, they hung up. 

 

  There was a silence, and Cera broke it after some time, as they continued walking down the corridor. 

  “What was that about?” she asked, as Alistair fumbled on his Karmonphone the contact of Ibis and Stansa. 

 

  “What else, Cera?” he sighed in exasperation, “the dark cult! They’re taking everyone as their prisoners, and Korvo, Stephen, Jeffrey, and Lanvin are getting weaker, because Lanvin’s condition is showing.” 

  Cera cringed at the information. It started as a wonderful plan, to let Stephen and his companions to go visit Hamish, but now, the cult is disrupting everything, again, after so long. 

 

  The Room of the Requiem was a room of wonders, and normally no sorcerers are allowed to gain access to it, unless they belonged inside the Council. From inside the room, sorcerers perform a special form of seance, to summon the Charming spirit. 

  The Charming spirit’s main task is to reveal the correct way of reversing or converting a spell or curse, mainly on artifacts or old furnitures. According to Cera, it was actually unfortunate that non-magic folks have no idea of this spirit, otherwise cursed dolls or toy items, even old relics, would’ve been safe, inside abandoned houses or mansions. 

 

  Entering the room, Alistair and Cera saw everything they’ve converted and de-cursed from the start of their adventures, through the time void and not, all the way till the most recent one — the tripod Hamish Frye touched accidentally. 

  “Who puts all this here?” wondered Cera, looking around at the aesthetic room. 

 

  From the start, the Room of the Requiem was an abandoned room of the Department of Sorcery, and was said to be haunted, by the Charming spirit. 

 

  “I expect it’s the Council.” replied Alistair, and went up with Cera to the altar, where a statue was placed. 

  Around the statue, it was all dark, only with Alistair and Cera’s shadows playing on the walls. Candles were lit, which gave the altar an even eerier look. 

 

  “This is creepy,” said Cera with a small shudder, “are you sure about summoning this spirit again? Last time it said that Lanvin’ll eventually defeat the dark sorcerer leader of the cult, but it was actually Hamish.” 

  Alistair resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her. 

  “It’s not a Seer, Cera.” he said back, “and, don’t tell me you’re scared again — we’ve been here, remember?” And to the statue, he said the passcode, “3, 4, 2, 1, 0.” 

 

  Right on cue, the air became heavier, and Cera felt chill bumps lining up on her skin as the chains started clinking together. All of a sudden, a reedy voice spoke, almost from within the statue, which Cera just found out had black, beady eyes that made another chill go down her backbone, “weeeeelcoooome baaaaack, Alistair Vonneguuuuuut…” 

  Cera shuddered again at the reedy voice, as it asked, without the statue actually speaking, “soooo what issss it that you want thissssss time?” 

  Alistair looked nervously at her, and she smirked internally. It was some small victory for the great sorcerer, Alistair Vonnegut, to feel creeped out by some statue. 

 

  “The dark cult, that’s what.” he said, trying to keep his voice from shaking a little, “our friends are in a bit of trouble.” 

  “What happened to Hamish Frye is definitely the doing of the dark cult, we are certain of that,” Cera finally spoke up, since Alistair was already fidgeting uneasily, and showing him some mercy at last, “we want to know how we can defeat the cult this time.” 

  There was a silence that made both Alistair and Cera cringe, then the voice spoke again. 

 

  “Collect some of the holy water from the basin here and look for the tears of centaurs.” it said at last, and Alistair immediately defrost, behaving like Stephen and Jeffrey after being told off by Cera. 

  “That’s right, Cera, it was said in the sorcery book Ibis recommended!” he cried, finally getting more relaxed, “and?” 

  “It’ll take some time to make it work, and that’s how the dark cult tests their curses.” the statue, or rather, the spirit said, sounding much more inspirational than outright spooky, “the best time is to start now, so don’t waste the opportunity.” 

  Cera and Alistair both nodded, and without another word, the reedy voice disappeared and all there were inside the cavernous room, was candles burning and a really spooky-looking statue, that very possibly just given them advice. 

 

  “OK, we have to get some water from this basin.” Alistair said after another heavy silence, nodding towards the back of the cavernous room, “then we’ll have to travel to Scotland to look for centaurs.” 

  Cera grinned. “Brilliant,” she smiled at him, “now let’s go.” 

 

*** 

 

  Meanwhile, Ibis and Stansa already got the message from Korvo just as said person finished calling Alistair on his karmonphone, so that’s how come most of what’s going on over at Stephen, Lanvin, Jeffrey, and Randall’s place is temporarily stable. 

 

  “We’d better get there now,” said Korvo, standing up from the ground, “just in case Alistair and Cera already finished their own expedition.” 

 

  The walk over to St. Barton’s wasn’t too dangerous, but Korvo still made sure Lanvin stayed with him constantly, also making Ibis stand next to him as well; so that they sandwiched Lanvin in the middle. 

  “Now you’re just being paranoid,” said Stansa when they finally arrived after some time of walking, “which room is Hamish staying, I wonder?” 

 

  They entered the front door of the sorcery hospital and looked around in the great hall, which was full of sorcerers, either hurt by something or too traumatized by recent events. 

 

  “It’s understandable that they’ll be suffering,” said Randall after Stansa suggested Korvo to go ask one of the healers, “the dark cult rose way too rapidly, and without warning.” 

  Going over to one of the waiting places, Lanvin and Ibis both sat down together with Stansa. 

  “I just hope that Alistair got what he needs,” said Lanvin, leaning against Ibis nervously. “They haven’t contacted us for so long.” 

 

  That was indeed true enough, and since the incident was much more stable, Korvo had told them that the last time he and Alistair contacted each other was before the latter and Cera entered the Room of the Requiem. 

  “Is the room only reserved for Council members?” Jeffrey had asked when they were leaving the scene, “according to Cera, there is this super-creepy looking statue that speaks in a reedy voice.” 

  Korvo’d rolled his eyes. That was true, but whatever the charming spirit is, it shouldn’t ever be out, according to Council members, especially Hamish. 

 

  Back in the present, Korvo went back to their group. 

  “He’s on the third floor, right next to the room of diagnostics,” he announced to them, “we’d better get going, and still, don’t forget to check for the doppelgänger seduction spells!” 

 

*** 

 

  Going to the third floor was, fortunately, successful, and none of the healers were doppelgängers of themselves, which is, they’re actually themselves instead of an alternate self. 

 

  Hamish’s room was close to diagnostics, and immediately as Lanvin started tearing up, a healer sprang out of the room, positively beaming. 

  “Oh!” she cried, twirling her wand around, “you must be visitors?” 

  Korvo tried not to roll his eyes at her unprofessional behaviour. “Yes, we are. Is this where Hamish Fry is staying?” he asked, mustering his best Alistair Vonnegut impression. Even though he and Alistair are both able to feel empathy and compassion for their clients when time void traveling, Korvo can almost never do an Alistair impersonation when trying to be as charming as possible. 

  Fortunately, the healer blushed and fluttered her eyelashes, actually making Korvo roll his eyes but still muster up his best charming smile at her. 

 

  “Oh, yes, he’s right here.” she giggled, blushing some more, “he’s got visitors already, so I’m sure that you’re all his friends or enemies?” Here, she finally stopped acting like a child and became much more serious. 

  “Definitely friends!” cried Jeffrey and Stephen in unison. They were already suffering from shouting withdrawal. “We understand your wondering, because the cult has been here?” 

  The female nodded and said, “yes, they used the doppelgänger seduction spell on one of the healers. She was about to tell Mr. Fry’s location before I stopped her.” 

 

  Korvo sighed in relief and she ushered them in, opening the door. 

  Hamish Frye’s room was extremely bright and welcoming now, since Hamish has already woken up, as Korvo and Stephen saw. Jacen, the sorcerer they met earlier yesterday, was there as well. 

  “Mr. Frye, you’ve more visitors.” the healer smiled again. 

 

  From one of the beds, Hamish looked up from Jacen and looked delighted to see that his associates from the Council were there. 

  “Never expected them here,” he said back, with a dazzling, Alistair-approved smile at her, and she blushed like some non-magic folk all over again. 

 

  When she finally left them alone with each other, Jacen looked up as well. 

  “Hamish, it’s them again.” he said gently, still looking concerned at Hamish. 

 

  That made said person sit up. “They’re my associates from the Council…well, most of them are,” he said back, as Korvo and company went closer to the duo. “Ibis and Stansa used to be in the cult, but now they’ve left, according to a test I did after defeating the first leader.” 

  From around Ibis and Korvo, Randall looked at Jacen. 

  “You mentioned that the artifact was cursed, isn’t it?” he asked quietly, making sure the others didn’t hear their conversation. 

 

  Jacen turned away. He hated this form of talk, and whenever people start asking about the curses.

  “Yes, we bought it because I knew that it was cursed and wanted to take it to the Room of the Requiem,” he said back, softly, and Hamish put a hand on his arm, trying to be comforting. “That’s when we started arguing, and caused him to accidentally touch the artifact.” 

  Here, he finally started tearing up and Hamish looked as if he was on the verge of melting. Ibis turned away and looked out of the window instead. He felt ill whenever sorcerers do this. 

 

  “I feel so guilty on this, I should’ve told him, but he didn’t believe me at all.” he continued, and Randall said, “almost no one in London knew about the dark cult rising, Jacen. So none of you should take the blame. I would’ve warned the Council if Lanvin wasn’t with Cera and Alistair.” 

 

  That was understandable enough, and Jacen shook his head at Hamish. 

  “Because of his condition, eh?” he smiled a little bit at the sorcerer. He stood up from where he was sitting on Hamish’s bed. “I want to stay longer, but I’ll have to go to the Room of the Requiem to see whether they’ve converted the curse.” He looked at Lanvin and said, “please look after him, it’s you two who’re close, anyway.” 

 

*** 

 

  That evening when they all came back together, Ibis actually suggested that some of them better go off to their own places, since Lanvin was suffering from one of his episodes, again. 

  “If that’s so, you’d better be there for him, Ibis, instead of escaping.” said Alistair when Ibis asked. “Hamish couldn’t take care of him any longer since he needs caring as well.” 

 

  From the couch, Stephen and Jeffrey grinned at each other. Whenever there is a really serious incident, Ibis could always make the atmosphere much more lighthearted. 

 

  Ibis’s eyes darkened. “He’s mentally unstable and you’re saying that I’m supposed to take care of him?” he snapped, standing up from where he was sitting at the dining table, after their dinner have been eaten and the plates and glasses have finished their refilling, “yes, we’re getting close to each other, I admit! But taking care of him is totally out of the question!” 

  “Ibis…” Alistair looked at him exasperated, “Cera and I need to talk and we cannot always look after him.” 

  “Why not consult Korvo and Swall — I mean, Randall?” Ibis asked back. 

 

  There was a pause, and Alistair still said, “you should, because neither of them are in a relationship with him.” 

  And with that, he stood up and went to the study, with Ibis glaring knives at his retreating figure. If looks could kill, Alistair was already dead meat. 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey both looked down as that exchange happened. They’ve already understood from Alistair’s lectures that it is never a good idea to disturb Ibis further if said person was in one of his emotional swings, which meant that if his eyes are changing colors rapidly, leave the room. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o  

 

End chapter 7 

 

 A/N 2: OK, now you may know where the title of the entire fic came from… 

 

 A/N 3: I’m still trying my best in imitating how Jonathan wrote the trilogy, so chapter 8 is up!


	8. Negotiations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: JC14 requested a sequel to this multi-chapter fic, and that is actually after I decided to actually do one! And from this chapter on, the gang may be traveling again, since that’s what the charming spirit told them to do. Cue fantastical elements!

  Cera Hildebrand didn’t think it was the best idea to not tell the others, so that evening, she was telling Alistair just that before Stephen and Jeffrey burst in the study. 

 

  Cera and Alistair looked up from the monitor. “What is it this time?” sighed Cera, feeling exasperated at her brother’s antics already. 

  Jeffrey smirked. “Seems like Ibis’s getting irritated because of Lanvin, again!” he grinned at her, “and too bad we’re not witnesses to that because Ibis literally threatened to kill us right then and there.” 

 

  Alistair rolled his eyes and turned back to Cera, ignoring him. 

  “It said that we should go to the forests in Scotland, so you up for it?” he asked instead. “The others can stay here, since Randall is with them for the time being. I hope it’s safe enough, and there’ll definitely be more room if we’re gone.” 

  Cera looked at Stephen and Jeffrey, who were watching them intently, and turned away. It sounded easier than ever when coming to listening to the spirits words, but when in fact it took all of their energies. 

  “The only problem is, what about them?” she asked, looking at Alistair again, “I don’t really trust Randall, and I heard them say that they’ll be going to the Room. Well, according to Ibis, he heard Jacen say about going there.” 

 

  All of a sudden, Jeffrey spoke up. “Cera, we’d love to go to the Room anyways!” he beamed, “no worries about us, we can manage. Promise!” 

  “True,” agreed Alistair, looking at the monitor intently again, and Cera looked up and sighed, “so you two’ll n’ver get how serious this is?” 

  “No, sis,” said Stephen calmly, “all we want to tell is that we’re capable of being with Ibis and company, or maybe even with you two.” 

 

*** 

 

  The next day, while with Stephen, Alistair, and Jeffrey, Cera was too engrossed in her possible travel to Scotland that she didn’t even hear what Stephen and Jeffrey were planning, since at the same time, Alistair was doing research as well. 

 

  “…and they wouldn’t even notice.” Jeffrey was saying. He and Stephen were flipping and reading a sorcery book, looking very intense. 

  Stephen grinned. “What if it back-fires?” 

  “That’s possible — our plan back-firing, because Alistair and Cera are both way too good in sorcery,” murmured Jeff, smiling slowly; he looked up. “We can blame either Jacen or Hamish, saying that they needed our help!” Here, he beamed ourtright. “This is perfect!” 

 

  Both Alistair and Cera looked up at that. Whatever Stephen and Jeffrey were planning, wasn’t exactly OK in Cera’s plan, because she is just that paranoid. 

  “No you’re not, Stephen.” she said firmly, looking hard at her brother, “Randall and the others are going today to the Room of the Requiem to make sure the curse from the tripod is converted. It’s not safe for both of you, and I haven’t forgiven Alistair for dragging you two into the mess of visiting Mr. Frye. Jeffrey, Hamish is Mr. Frye for you two, because of his title in the Council.” 

  That went on for almost forever. 

 

  Korvo also wanted to go with Alistair and Cera to whatever excavation they were going together, and already, Cera suspected something might been going on between them. 

  “That can’t be possible,” was what Stansa said when Korvo requested the fact that he and them go together. “Korvo cares too much about Lanvin, and he’s never making sure that Ibis is with him, since Ibis has feelings for him.” 

 

  They were meeting in this small inn around sorcery London when Ibis and the others went to the Room, with Jeffrey and Stephen holding the fort back in Alistair’s flat, and was pretending to be the sorcerers and sorceresses who went to the inn to get lunch or just lounge around the place, did Stansa pop the question about Lanvin and Korvo’s request. 

 

  “The question is, d’you really trust them?” asked Stansa, as suddenly, again, the weather overhead changed drastically. 

  Cera resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Why not? Stephen’s my younger brother and obviously he and Jeffrey’re inseparable.” 

 

  A silence came over them, and it happened just as the weather overhead became overcast, again, just like last time. 

  “Oh…no,” mumbled Cera into her tea. That was when three things happened at once in a blur. And the only things Stansa and Cera could recognize was the different shades of light, and that was when it became a total panic mode around the tavern. 

 

  Stansa hurried to get her Karmonphone and contacted the others. 

  “Ibis? It’s Stansa!” she cried, looking around at all the light and sorcerers trying their best to either get away or fight the cult off, “I think we’re having trouble around here…” 

 

  Meanwhile, Randall, Lanvin, Korvo, and Ibis were in the Department of Sorcery. 

  “We have to warn the Council!” cried Lanvin, looking around warily, “they shouldn’t just fall like that.” 

 

  The corridors of the Department of Sorcery was just as quiet and echo-y as before Alistair and Cera were there, and already Korvo was feeling uneasy. His uneasiness was multiplied when Ibis’s karmonphone vibrated, then glowed. Stansa. 

  “What does she need this time?” sighed Ibis, rolling his aqua eyes, then took the call. “What is it?”

  Stansa was way too panicked. “Ibis, I think we’re having trouble — the dark cult is right after us.” she was saying rapidly, “look after Lanvin, Cera she…” 

 

  That was when Ibis’s cry echoed everywhere. “Cera WHAT?!” 

  Everyone stopped walking and looked stunned at each other. Whatever happened to Cera, they didn’t want to know. 

 

*** 

 

  They met Jacen near the Room of the Requiem when Ibis, Randall, Korvo, and Lanvin arrived at the level below ground. 

  “So glad you could join me,” said Jacen as they entered. 

 

  The Room of the Requiem was, as mentioned, the only room where only special sorcerers could enter — only Council members. Ibis was scanned by the sensor before the monitor decided that he’d left the dark cult and is safe to enter. 

  “If any non-council members entered, there’ll be even more trouble,” said Jacen as they went close to one of the caskets, which was open. Ibis could see a cavernous room near the end of the whole room, and it gave an eerie feel t0 the entire place. 

 

  “And that’s the Charming spirit altar?” he asked, nodding towards the red light, casted by the never-burning candles. 

  Jacen nodded and looked away from the altar. “It is only used by very special Council members,” he explained, finally looking at the tripod, which was cursed by the cult, “now this…” 

 

  He put a hand over it and gently levitated it away from the open casket. Korvo and the others stared at it. The tripod was possibly a very ancient Chinese relic, and there really has to be a reason why the cult chose this object. 

  “Why this one?” whispered Korvo to Ibis, “it looks like an ancient Chinese relic, instead of any other artifacts we have around here.” 

 

  From the closed caskets, there contained all the artifacts the Council converted the curses from. And only the tripod was the Chinese relic. 

 

  All of a sudden, Jacen put it back inside and turned to them. 

  “This relic looks like a tripod from China in the ancient times,” he told them, “and I’m wondering why they want to curse this one. Most of the other relics are artifacts from the middle ages, especially this scepter.” He walked to a closed casket that contained a scepter. 

  “That’s the scepter that the cult used in order to curse Cera Hildebrand before Alistair Vonnegut converted it and framed me and Stansa,” said Ibis softly to Korvo. 

 

  Suddenly, Randall looked at Jacen. “Actually, the true reason we’re all here today is, we want to ask you, Jacen, about what happened to Hamish Frye.” he said, gently nudging Lanvin in order to go to Jacen. 

  Lanvin looked at him in surprise. “You don’t say he’s held responsible?!” he cried in surprise, “why d’you think that, Randall, he was seen getting out and it was him who tried to warn Hamish.” 

 

  Randall ignored him and Jacen said, “the thing is, Hamish didn’t believe it when I told him that the dark cult is rising. The antique was originally bought to celebrate our anniversary of being companions, and that was when it happened.” 

  “You knew it was cursed before even buying it?” Ibis was hooked as well, and Lanvin’s eyes welled. It was true, ever since he was abducted unexpectedly by the former leader of the dark cult, Hamish got outside help, via Jacen, in order to save him, get him to St. Barton’s, and defeat the leader before Lanvin met Alistair and Cera. 

  “All it was, it wasn’t expected.” Jacen said, after looking at Lanvin, “Hamish is too kind. If he knew earlier that the cult is rising, he wouldn’t hesitate on making sure that the relics are all converted. Now, without him…” (A/N: Yes, I do ship Hamish Frye/Jacen Kavriel!) 

 

  “Stop interrogating him, we have to go see Hamish now,” said Korvo, after Randall continued his interrogation and Jacen looking more than forlorn, “also, if Cera and Stansa is still undercover, we should hurry.” 

  That was when Ibis spoke. “No, Korvo, Cera was taken.” 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o  

 

End chapter 8 

 

 A/N 3: Sorry about how short this chapter is, because I really have to re-read the trilogy again! 

 

 A/N 4: Now that Cera was taken by the cult, what’ll happen to her? Can she ever go back to Alistair and company…she will, because I said so!


	9. The Dark Cult Rises

_Chapter 9: The Dark Cult Rises_  

 

  The dark cult was staying near the mansion region around non-magical London, and Cera could already sense trouble brewing. Brinkley House, a very popular sorcerers’ attraction for parties and gatherings, was almost next door to where the cult was staying, and if she stays longer with them, what’ll befall the others? 

 

  “Please, not Brinkley House!” she cried out when they passed the place. 

  “Be quiet, you!” hissed one of the dark sorcerers, blasting her with one of the spells they use. Cera has seen it been performed on Lanvin, and she cried out. 

 

  The mansion where the cult was staying was near Brinkley House, but not right next to it. It was almost identical to where they stayed when they were in Norfolk. 

  “We’ll ask nicely now, where is Dusset?!” snapped the leader, “we’ve unfinished business with him, and his other friend.” 

  Cera was horrified at their implication. If Lanvin was back with them, he wouldn’t be able to stand it. 

 

  “I really have no idea!” she cried desperately, “all I know about him is that he’s friends with a member of the Council.” 

  The cult member bristled in anger at her defiance. 

  “Well, now you’re with us, we’ll show you how not to defy us!” he struck her with another spell and forced her into one of the rooms inside the mansion. And to a female member, he ordered, “look after her, we can’t have the Council look for her at ALL, after what happened to Dusset!” 

 

  The female nodded quickly. “Yes, of course,” she agreed, and went inside the room with Cera as the door slammed shut, startling both females. 

 

*** 

 

  Meanwhile, Ibis and company were already at the tavern where Cera and Stansa stayed, before Cera was taken by the cult. 

  “How could you not even notice her gone?!” gasped Korvo, his amber eyes wide open. “What can we tell Alistair?” 

 

  That truly was another thing they should’ve thought about, with Alistair’s tendency to think wild thoughts. 

 

  “He mentioned about traveling with Cera, so I guess we’d better tell him that she went to where he was deciding to go, albeit earlier than planned.” said Stansa back, “Ibis, Korvo, you have no idea how messed up this place became when the cult arrived! St. Barton’s is almost full, and there’s even more sorcerers harmed!” 

 

  Back in Alistair’s flat, Stephen and Jeffery was in the study, looking wide-eyed at the monitor when the front door opened. 

  Jeffrey looked at Stephen. “Now what?” he murmured, still shaken from what he saw on the monitor. “How can we tell him?” 

 

  Stephen sighed and reached for a sorcery book. 

  “I say we keep quiet, unless he asks us,” he replied, just as Ibis’s voice rang out, “Alistair Vonnegut, we. Are. Indeed back now!” 

  Stephen and Jeffrey looked at each other. Oh…no. 

 

  Nervously edging out of the study, they peeked at the sorcerers, who all looked troubled, but more so on Korvo and Lanvin’s side. 

 

  “…and Stephen?” Lanvin was asking. 

  Ibis rolled his eyes at him. “You really think Stephen Hildebrand has no idea?” he asked back, getting agitated again, as usual, “he and Jeffrey are in front of the monitor for most of the time and I’m sure that they know about her already. If they don’t, I’m surprised.” 

 

  Finally getting out of their hiding place, Jeffrey and Stephen tried to be enthusiastic. 

  “Welcome back!” they said in unison, but still lacked their usual enthusiasm. Of course Stephen and Jeffrey weren’t worried about Cera, what they were worried about was how will Alistair react to the news that she has been captured by the dark cult. 

 

  Ibis looked up from the couch. “Thanks to you two,” he said back, “so you’ve heard, right?” 

  Both youngsters cringed. How could they not, by staring at the monitor for too long? 

  At last, Jeffrey spoke up. “Yes, about Cera.” 

 

  “It’ll be a miracle if she could keep this up,” said Lanvin quietly, “the cult will never spare anyone, and if they didn’t kill you, you’re lucky.” 

  “Wasn’t Mr. Curtis one of them?” Stephen asked suddenly, “if so, he could save her.” 

 

  That was when Ibis jumped up, his eyes changing colors again. 

  “Cera was right, you two have no idea about the cult!” he snapped, startling Lanvin and the youngsters, “they couldn’t stand past-members entering their lair anymore, and Invisible spells are literally useless against them. Sometimes I have no idea what have Alistair taught you.” 

 

  That was true enough, and even then, everyone could see that Stephen and Jeffrey hardly concentrated on their training, and that was when Cera was there. 

 

*** 

 

  The true anxiousness settled when Alistair got back from the Department of Sorcery later that evening. Lanvin and Ibis wasn’t concerned, since they never really liked Cera(in Ibis’s case) and never really knew her(in Lanvin’s case). As usual, Stephen and Jeffrey forgot all about Cera missing and being with the dark cult, and they were reading a really, really good sorcery book that made them think of more pranks than normal. And other than that, Korvo was lecturing Stansa, making sure that he used ‘she’ and ‘her’ instead of Cera’s true name. That was what Alistair got home to. 

 

  “So how was Hamish?” he asked conversationally, and everyone looked up at once. 

  Korvo spoke first. “We didn’t really go see him, Alistair, but we did go to see Jacen Kavriel, Hamish’s ward,” he explained, tearing his eyes away from Stansa. “It seemed that the artifact is something of Chinese origin.” 

 

  It really isn’t that he blamed Stansa everything — most of it, actually. He just expected Cera to not be someone not to end something without a fight. 

 

  As soon as Alistair stopped interrogating him, he snapped at Stansa again, “and why didn’t you contact her via Karmonphone?” 

  Stansa sighed exasperated. “Korvo, you don’t understand how the cult works!” she cried, feeling even more humiliated than the time when she and Ibis were suspected on cursing the artifacts, “their lair disables all forms of contact with the outside world. And it’s not like you didn’t know how she and Alistair found Lanvin!” 

 

  Alistair looked up from Lanvin. “Another sorcerer got hurt?” he asked, getting concerned, “who is it?” 

  That was when everyone went back on alert, even Stephen and Jefferey. 

 

  There was a deafening silence, until Ibis spoke. 

  “Another sorcerer from the alleyway,” he replied, “remember Casey Roston, the sorcerer that sold all forms of sorcery books? He was the latest victim of being caught. I hope he breaks free, though, because we need more sorcery books.” 

  Stephen already forgot everything and that’s how come he asked back, “wasn’t it my sister?” 

  “No!” immediately, Korvo ejaculated, “we all thought it was her until we noticed that she went on this expedition. Alistair, she wanted you to look after Lanvin, so she left earlier. That’s how come she’s not here.” 

 

  Alistair sighed in exasperation at his companions fibs. He already noticed Cera not being there, and he was worried. If she really was on the journey away from London and to Scotland, that should be a good sign. All he has to do is follow her. But now, the storm was brewing again, and it wasn’t safe at all inside London, and she could be captured. 

 

  “Please, Ibis, just tell me, why’s she not here — truthfully.” he said quietly, not even angry at them for losing her; or rather, not even angry at Stansa for losing her. 

  “She…” even Ibis had no idea what to say anymore. “But if we tell you what actually happened today, please promise us that you wouldn’t go running after her.” 

 

  It was harder than ever for Alistair when it was finally curfew, and they should continue their expedition to converting the curse off the tripod and at the same time, try to rescue Cera. At the same time, Cera and Alistair still had an expedition to Scotland. 

  But first, Alistair should face how upset Korvo was, and it isn’t about Cera’s disappearance. And because of the raised voices, that caught Stephen and Jeffrey’s attention, and they sneaked to Alistair’s room, which had the door ajar, again. 

 

  “Trivial matters, as usual,” grinned Jeffrey, as they listened to the two sorcerers inside bickering, “I knew at first that there was something between them, and Korvo was actually glad that Cera’s gone for now.” 

 

  “You care more for Cera Hildebrand than me, alright then, Alistair, I get it.” Korvo was saying, “it’s fine, because you two are each other’s companions, and companions care for each other. Anyways, if you want to blame anyone, it’s Stansa.” 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey were shocked to hear how hurt Korvo was, and immediately understood. So Cera’d been telling the truth after all… 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o  

 

End chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yes, get ready for Alistair Vonnegut/Korvo extremely sloooooooow build.


	10. Can Alistair et Al Convince the New Leader of the Cult?(or, Hamish Frye's Secret)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I understand, and yes, this is getting stranger and stranger until the verdict is produced. 
> 
> A/N 2: No, I have no idea how many chapters this is going to be, and I’m definitely not planning to finish it any earlier, because this is what the Community trilogy should be like, at least I think so. 
> 
> A/N 3: This chapter is relatively light-hearted, because I’ve been reading a few Jeeves and Wooster fanfics again and was inspired. Cue very OOC Ibis!

_PAIRING: Alistair Vonnegut/Korvo(pre-pre-slash)_  

 

  Whatever happened last night, Jeffrey and Stephen were already giddy with excitement as they very enthusiastically prepared breakfast for everyone inside Alistair Vonnegut’s flat. 

 

  “What Cera said was true, Jeff, and I’m still stunned,” said Stephen Hildebrand when he and Jeffrey O’Cairn finally started eating their own breakfasts. “And don’t tell me the reason because it just spoils it.” 

  Stephen smirked. It was just like Alistair and Korvo, not even noticing how much they care for each other. And, it was essential that they have something much more light-hearted after Cera’s capture. 

 

  “Cera just missed what happened last night, and if she’s coming back, I’m definitely not planning to tell her.” Stephen decided, then went to the kitchen and poured more of the Waking restorative potion he and Jeffrey made a day before. 

 

  All of a sudden, there was footsteps on the stairs and Alistair Vonnegut came into view, with Ibis trailing behind him. 

  “So do you actually have feelings for him?” he was asking, and Alistair was actually getting flustered, “originally I thought he had a crush on Lanvin.” 

 

  From the dining table, Stephen was looking down and trying to stifle his laughing, and Jeffery was listening to the banter. 

 

  “…no, and I…Ibis, wherever did you get that idea?” Alistair was asking, now blushing and avoiding eye contact with Ibis, with said person already smiling smugly. 

  Ibis left him temporarily and went to grab a restorative from the kitchen, and Alistair looked hard at the trainees, who were already sniggering behind their hands. 

 

  “You two can never give us a break, is it?” he asked, sighing. 

  Jeffrey smiled at him when he looked up. “Oh, no, ‘course not!” he said, draining the last of his Irish tea, “whatever happened last night, we’ve no idea! Solemnly swear.” 

 

  That was when Ibis came back into the dining area. 

  “I heard you and Korvo bantering last night, Alistair, and I’m not sure how would you and he work together now,” he said, taking a swig of the restorative potion. 

  Alistair looked up. “He was being irrational, Ibis, and you know it!” he snapped, glaring at the other sorcerer. 

 

  When breakfast was finished, Stephen and Jeffery were distracted from their training that Stephen suggested a potion in order for Alistair and Korvo to get back together. 

 

  “You think Veritaserum is going to work?” Jeffrey and his partner-in-crime were in the kitchen when Randall Curtis claimed that they could have a break, when Jeffrey popped the question. Randall was covering for Alistair because said person has to go to St. Barton’s personally in order to know exactly what happened to Hamish Frye. 

  “PAH, Jeff!” exclaimed Stephen, holding the sorcery book of potions in his arms, “of course not, because that’s for plain wizards, and we’re more powerful than them. I guess we can put a drop of Veritaserum inside in order for them to confess!” 

 

  Jeffrey fished through the ingredients Alistair and Cera had before finding a crack-snapper, which was, strangely, not there two days ago. He smiled devilishly. This is going to be interesting… 

 

  Immediately turning around, he beamed, “no Veritaserum, but a crack-snapper! We should try it on Ibis first, then Alistair!” 

  As expected, Stephen also had an evil smirk. “Brilliant, Jeff,” he said, in his best Dark Cult impersonation, “you remember this was something Korvo got because of Lanvin?” 

  Afterwards, without any further ado, they mixed and stirred the potion inside the painfully small cauldron they bought around the time when Cera and Alistair were investigating the secret behind some artifacts. 

 

  “You don’t expect it to be another investigation on artifacts, do you, Stephen?” asked Jeffrey after casting another spell over their concoction. 

  Stephen rolled his eyes. “‘Course not, since it was already solved before the cult abducted Lanvin.” he said this nonchalantly, but suddenly, Jefferey shouted, “I GOT IT!” then ran out of the kitchen towards the study. 

  Stephen stared after him. Whatever gotten into him, he didn’t know. 

 

***

 

  Jeffrey was in the study for most of the day, and because of an error in the concoction, Ibis was very much out of his normal self, literally flirting with everyone until collapsing onto Korvo, with said person irked, stunned, and a little frightened. 

 

  “That was bally ah-may-zing…” murmured Ibis, before falling asleep, right on top of Korvo. 

  Lanvin giggled nervously and Randall looked at Jeffery and Stephen, who were pretending to read a transfiguration book. 

  Oops, thought Stephen, biting his lip to keep from cracking up. 

  There was a silence, and Randall asked, “since when, Ibis, did you get a crack-snapper for breakfast? And what’ll Alistair say if he sees you like this?” 

 

  All of a sudden, Ibis sprung off Korvo and waltzed around the living room. 

  “I tell you, I ADORE Alistair’s sorcery perspection since how long?” he beamed at Randall. 

  Lanvin giggled again and finally, Stephen also cracked up. 

 

  Randall sighed in exasperation and that was when all three of them collapsed into laughing, and even Ibis joined in, completely oblivious to whatever they were implying. 

 

*** 

 

  Alistair, Randall, and Korvo were the ones to go on the excavation on interviewing Hamish and Jacen again, because according to Alistair, he couldn’t have Ibis acting all out of character even outside. Lanvin and the youngsters were supposed to be either grounded in the flat, holding the fort until the trio comes back, or just look after Ibis, who was shouting in glee when notified that he’d be with Jeffrey and Stephen when normally, he’d get rigid with fury. 

 

  Finally understanding the stakes at hand since Cera’s disappearance and what Jacen told him and the others — namely Korvo, Randall, and Ibis, he went to the study to get a sorcery book and went back to the kitchen to make the restorative. Until that, Alistair was relieved and ushered his new companions out and towards the rest of Sorcery World London. 

 

  The alleyway was one of the places where sorcerers can get access to either the non-magic side of London, or the sorcery world side. Alistair, Korvo, and Randall went towards the sorcery side, as usual, and was passing the tavern when Randall finally spoke. 

  “According to Stansa, this is where she was captured.” he said, gesturing towards the tavern, which now had very little customers. 

 

  “I should have known better to allow that, Randall, and now it’s too late,” said Alistair back, walking on, and towards St. Barton’s, “I don’t know why but I think the healers over at St. Barton’s may can give us some answers.” 

  Randall and Korvo looked at each other, and Korvo was obviously upset. 

  “Do you have any feelings towards her, Alistair?” he asked, without any form of gentleness or kindness; just a plain question. 

 

  Alistair stopped walking and glared at him. “Why, Korvo?” he asked, getting agitated. Randall cringed. Whenever this happens, it was usually towards Cera. “Do you have to know that? She’s only a companion, nothing else! I can not have feelings towards her. I don’t, and never did. She’s only a friend.” 

  “C’mon, we’d better get to St. Barton’s quickly than slow,” finally, after some agonizing silence between them, Randall broke the silence. 

  Korvo ignored him and went on, without even looking at Alistair. 

 

  St. Barton’s was completely crowded, mostly because of the wounded wizards and witches who lived near the sorcery world. 

  “Third floor,” said Randall, and they went to the lifts and went up. 

 

  When they arrived, some healers were on the side, muttering about something, and Korvo only caught the last of their conversation. 

  “…can’t be,” one of them said, “if that is true, it’s the Dusset case all over again.” 

 

  Randall gently pulled Korvo over before Korvo could even register what he heard, and opened the door to Hamish’s room slowly, peeking in. 

  It wasn’t a very promising sight. Jacen was crying quietly and a healer was performing a spell. 

 

  “Oh, my god…” murmured Randall. 

  “What is it?” asked Alistair, trying to look over Randall’s head at the scene. 

  “He’s obviously unconscious now and we have to go over to the Department of Sorcery, NOW.” Randall hissed back, “I’m wondering exactly what spell did the cult use this time.” 

 

  All of a sudden, Korvo felt a strange sensation, just watching the performance by the healer. If his feeling was wrong, it’ll mean entire destruction. 

  “Yes, we have to go over there.” he agreed, then disappeared in a flash of white light. 

 

  Alistair and Randall looked at each other. “We’d better follow him, and if what he’s implying is true,” Randall didn’t finish, knowing that they’d better trust Korvo’s sentinel-like senses. 

 

*** 

 

  The Department of Sorcery was still deserted in below ground floor, and that was where Randall and Alistair found Korvo. 

  “Korvo?” asked Randall softly. 

 

  Gingerly, Korvo turned towards them. “Please, did you even hear what the healers were implying?” he was panicked, but kept his voice low, “the cult captured Cera because of something, but we don’t know why. Yet. But I have this theory — they want her to be the next leader.” 

  That got both Randall and Alistair flabbergasted. Cera Hildebrand, the next cult leader? That was exactly what Stansa said when Alistair framed her and Ibis for cursing some artifacts. 

 

  “That’s not possible!” cried Alistair, looking wide-eyed. “Stansa implied this when I suspected her and Ibis for cursing the relics, and now…?” 

  Korvo was much more confident now. “That has to be it,” he said, looking away again, “think about it, why else would they take her? I think by threatening Lanvin, they’d get her out to the open. They nearly got her when we went to Norfolk, but Randall, you stopped it. The cult hardly even follows the orders of the leaders, so they want someone weaker than them, and both Lanvin and Cera are weaker than them in abilities.” 

  There was a stunned silence, as Alistair and Randall made that information sink in. 

 

  “Because we’re protecting Lanvin, they took Cera instead,” said Alistair slowly, “but why not one of us?” 

  Korvo continued walking, and Alistair and Randal followed. 

  “Don’t you get it, Alistair?” sighed Korvo, looking over at him, “we’re way too powerful for them. They’re harming everyone because they’re weak. Also, didn’t the Dusset case prove anything to you? If my theory is correct, then it’s destruction for the sorcery world. We have to get Cera back, in order to save the sorcery world.” 

 

  Meanwhile, back at St. Barton’s, the healer finished the spell and looked at Jacen. 

  “Be with him, he has to wake soon.” she said gently, her eyes concerned; “without him, the sorcery world…” 

  She didn’t finish the sentence before leaving, with tears in her eyes. 

 

  Jacen looked up at the still ajar door, and sent a wave of aura flame and closed it quietly. The sorcery world was falling, indeed, again; and it was illogical why the dark cult still wanted Lanvin Dusset, a French sorcerer. 

  Suddenly, the weather outside changed, again, and just as drastically, and two robed figures jumped out at the late noon market, causing another panic among the customers. Aura flames clashed around, and a storm started brewing. 

 

  Jacen cringed at the scene. There was a sorceress with them, looking at them in horror. His eyes widened. 

  “Cera Hildebrand?” he asked, to just himself, “why’s she with them?” 

 

  All of a sudden, Hamish was also starting to act erratic, just like the time when he was accidentally cursed. 

  After shrieking and floating, Hamish, via curse void, declared, “the new leader, Cera Hildebrand!” 

 

  Jacen was shocked. The new cult leader, Alistair Vonnegut’s companion? 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End chapter 10


	11. Cult Plans(or, the Spirit of the Dance)

_Chapter 11: Cult Plans(or, The Spirit of the Dance)_

 

  Gossip travels fast in non-magic London, but it travels even faster in Sorcery World London. By that same afternoon, everyone in SWL knew about the dark cult’s plans. 

  Back in the lair of the cult, Cera was taken by the same member earlier during her capture to the room she shared with the female. 

 

  “Teach her everything, and no funny business!” he snapped at them. Then he left, but another commotion was caused when that happened. 

  The female cringed in despair, and Cera could see why Stansa and Ibis wanted to leave. 

  “Why do we need a new leader when we still have one, Raven?!” she yelled through the ajar door, “she can’t, she doesn’t —” 

 

  All of a sudden, the door opened again, and the same male, Raven, entered gruffly. 

  “You shut the XXX up, Pigeon!” he shouted, obscenities flying from his mouth, “as soon as she becomes one of us, we have to find Dusset and Mr Curtis.” 

  All of a sudden again, Raven was hit by a bright flash of sapphire aura flame, and he fell thud onto the floor. 

 

  “Raven, Raven, it’s so like you to disrupt all our plans like her and Vonnegut!” he shouted, blasting Raven again with the same spell, as Raven cried out. 

  “But sir, didn’t you say destroy them?” Raven asked fearfully, shaking like a leaf and no longer like what he was earlier. 

 

  The leader sighed and shook his head. “Yes, I did say that, when we were back in Norfolk,” he admitted, kneeling down next to him, “but no, I’ve reconsidered. If Lanvin doesn’t become the new leader, SHE will! I’m no longer like before, and you all should understand that.” 

  Pigeon and Cera looked shocked at that relevation. That was basically what happened when the Dusset case came to a close, only this time, it was Cera being in Lanvin’s place. 

 

  When the leader finally left, Pigeon looked at Cera. 

  “Now, we have to give you a code name.” she said, in a slight exasperated voice and stood up, walking towards the window of the room. “I don’t know, what’s the point of having names of animals or plants?” 

  That perked some of Cera’s interest. “If you all have code names, that means you all must have your actual names,” she said slowly, “do you?” 

 

  Pigeon turned around and looked at her. “Yes, actually, but no one here even calls us by our given name.” she answered, going to the bookshelf and getting a sorcery book. Cera noticed it as one of the books Stephen and Jefferey read with Alistair, and that made her miss them even worse. “My actual name is Caroline Spencer.” 

 

  Cera nearly did a double take. Ever since her first adventure with Alistair, she’s heard of Caroline. 

 

  “If she works for the dark cult, I’m not surprised,” Alistair had told her, then much more quietly, he murmured, “she used to be best friends with Kate.” 

  Cera’d been way fascinated by the second name than usual. 

  “Kate?” she asked. 

  “My younger sister.” Alistair had said, “they used to be friends, and shared a platonic love between them, not what you may be thinking of.” 

  Cera had cracked up already and Alistair had been extremely distressed, so Cera had decided to not ask and just go on with it, and had tried to console Alistair. 

 

  “What happened to Kate?” back in the present, Cera asked, still lost in the memories. Even now, she felt awful for laughing at Alistair’s implications on what happened between Kate and Caroline. 

  Caroline spun around and looked wide-eyed at her. “How did you know about Kate?!” she demanded. 

 

  That got her back to the present. “Oh, sorry!” she cried, withdrawing from Caroline, or rather, Pigeon, as the cult called her. “I was just lost in the memories. Alistair told me about you, just the fact that you and his younger sister were best friends.” 

  Caroline nodded and calmed down. “I should have known,” she said back, apologizing for her exclamation, “he was the only one who knew about us. Kate Vonnegut is still in the Council, after her faked death by Ibis. Cera, can I tell you this secret that’s going on in the cult?” 

  Cera froze. She didn’t even know whether she’s getting out of the cult, and now Caroline wants her to know something vital? 

 

  “Yes.” she murmured. 

  Caroline went closer to her. “I know that you and Alistair have been together for so long, and that he told you about me, but Kate, there’s something only I know, and no one else — she and Alistair were siblings, but no one knew, for some reason, and Ibis always had eyes for her.” she said quietly, “everyone in the cult knows. You may think Ibis and Stansa could make the perfect couple, but no, he only has eyes for Kate, Alistair’s sister.” 

  Cera’s eyes widened. That can’t be possible. Ibis? “That can’t be. Ibis? As in, Stansa’s companion?” 

  Caroline nodded. “It was he who arranged Kate to fake her death.” she said,  looking away again, “and that was way before Alistair met you.” 

  Cera couldn’t believe it. That just cannot be true. 

 

*** 

 

  Meanwhile, Stephen Hildebrand and Jeffrey O’Cairn were in the study of Alistair Vonnegut’s flat, and was connected to the dark cult’s lair via monitor, so they were seeing everything that was happening, with Cera and other members not noticing. 

 

  There were text-like speech bubbles that popped up whenever they spoke, but one message stunned both to oblivion — the message about Kate Vonnegut. Stephen immediately turned the monitor off and looked at Jefferey. 

  “Kate Vonnegut was a sorceress that was rumored to be dead,” he said, going to a bookshelf and grabbing a book, “according to Pigeon, she’s still alive and working for the Council? Now this is getting crazier and crazier.” 

  Jeffrey looked puzzled. “Who is she, Stephen, and why does she even interest you?” 

  Stephen spun around. “Haven’t you even listened to Cera and Alistair’s late-night conversations, Jeff?” he asked back, flipping through the pages of the book, “Kate Vonnegut was Alistair’s younger sister. She was rumored to be having an affair with Ibis…NOW I GET IT!” he suddenly hollered, “they are always clashing on and off because of HER!” 

  And throwing the book away, he hollered from the study, “IBIS? IBIS! THERE’S ANOTHER MYSTERY ON OUR HANDS!” 

  Jeffrey sighed. Sometimes Stephen is too much like Cera. 

 

  Back at the Department of Sorcery, Korvo got a Karmonphone contact with Stephen. 

  “I get it, Korvo, they want Cera to be the new leader, but that wasn’t the only thing I discovered.” he said hurriedly, “d’you know anything about Kate Vonnegut?” 

 

  Korvo stopped walking, and Alistair and Randall looked strange at him. 

  “It’s Stephen.” he mouthed at them, then connected the 3-D imaging. 

  “Uh…kind of, wasn’t she the one who’s rumored to be killed by the cult? But rest assured, she’s still alive.” he said back. 

  “You’ll never guess who she was in a relationship with.” said Stephen again, “it’s Ibis.” 

 

  Everyone looked exasperated at him. “Really, Stephen, playing matchmaker in a time like this?” Korvo was getting irritated, but Alistair demanded, “how did you know about her?!” 

  “Chill, Jeffery and I connected the monitor to the dark cult, and we’ve been monitoring Cera and she’s been talking with someone called Caroline Spencer,” Stephen explained, as the study door opened again, “uh-oh, Ibis’s here, see ya!” then they were disconnected. 

 

  A silence hang around the place, and nervously, Korvo continued walking. 

  “What was Stephen talking about?” asked Randall as they continued their journey, “it doesn’t really make any sense, does it?” 

 

  Here, both Korvo and Alistair stopped walking at the exact same time. 

  “Don’t you understand?” the former sighed, as Alistair looked away, with Randall puzzled. Korvo leaned in some more towards him, “Kate Vonnegut is Alistair’s sister, or, the ex-girlfriend of Ibis’s.” 

 

  When they finally arrived at the Room of the Requiem, they saw two sorcerers inside already, examining the artifacts that were inside the closed caskets. 

 

  Pulling Alistair and Randall out of the sorcerers’ eyesight, Korvo was already trembling with disbelief. 

  “I thought the magic was strong enough?” he whispered in horror, still looking at the two sorcerers as if in a trance. 

  Alistair and Randall looked at each other. What was bothering him again? 

 

  “What is it?” the former asked back, just as quietly. 

  “A Doppelgänger Seduction spell,” whispered Korvo back, “remember, the last time when we saw Hamish, he was unconscious. Now, look at them.” 

  The three sorcerers stared at the two, who were still oblivious to the attention they were getting. 

 

  “I really thought they were Hamish and Jacen, Korvo,” murmured Alistair into Korvo’s locks, “should we go back?” 

  Silently, Korvo casted a Stunning spell at the two ersatz-Hamish and Jacen, then hissed back, “yes, we’d better go back to St. Barton’s, before there’s more trouble.” 

 

*** 

 

  Hamish was thankfully awake when Korvo, Randall, and Alistair arrived back at St. Barton’s sorcery hospital, and he was talking with Jacen when a knock sounded and the healer opened the door. 

 

  Hamish and Jacen turned and the former smiled a little bit. 

  “I’ve heard Jacen say that you’ve been here already?” he asked softly, obviously still weak from the spell on the artifact. 

  Jacen looked up. “I told him, because I saw you visiting earlier.” he said, before any of them could ask any questions, “actually, more like felt you coming.” 

 

  Korvo grinned at him. “So seems like we’re the only ones who could feel changes in the environment, eh?” 

  Jacen blushed and Randall could see Alistair’s eyes slightly darken at their interaction; but as usual, Korvo didn’t notice. 

 

  “Something else we have to tell you about, it seems like the Room of the Requiem is invaded,” said Randall in his best cautious way, just in case he gets Hamish worked up again. “It happened because of the cult’s use of the Doppelgänger Seduction spell.” 

  Hamish and Jacen looked at each other. “That can’t be, Randall, the doors are equipped with magic sensors.” Jacen looked away and said again, “how…?” 

  “I can say it’s Ibis and Stansa, they disabled it after they proved that they were working for us, as anti-heroes to the cult,” Alistair suddenly said, “we’d better get to the flat, we have to ask Ibis.” 

 

  Korvo and Jacen looked at each other again. 

  “We’ll come again tomorrow,” promised Korvo, and gently hugged him, with Hamish smiling again, “promise.” 

  “Can we come here again?” Jacen turned away from him and looked at the healer, then at Hamish. 

  “No, we’ll have to run some more tests on him, the spell is too strong, way stronger than previous ones,” the healer said, and without another word, she gave Hamish a significant look and went out. 

  “You can meet at your place, Jacen,” murmured Hamish softly, and Jacen smiled brightly at Korvo, with said person finally smiling back. 

  “Promise.” 

 

  Back in Alistair’s flat, Ibis and Lanvin were discussing about what they heard from Stephen and Jeffrey’s overly loud voices, when all of a sudden, a bright flash of white light illuminated outdoors, and Lanvin went to open the door, to reveal a very upset Alistair, a smug Korvo, and a very confused Randall. 

 

  “Er…welcome back,” said Lanvin, hesitantly, before Alistair marched away from him and went to the study. 

  Korvo rolled his eyes towards Alistair’s retreating figure and said, “oh, so you now want my attention?” 

 

  That made Stephen, Ibis, and Jefferey all look up. 

  “What happened between them?” asked Ibis nonchalantly, and Stephen and Jeffrey echoed with much more concerned voices, “what happened between Korvo and Alistair?” 

 

  Randall flopped on the couch. “Who knows?” he asked back, “Korvo was getting close with Jacen Kavriel and he said that Alistair was jealous. That does look like jealousy, if you look closely.” 

  Stephen and Jeffery looked at each other and sighed deeply. Seems like another of their plans have back-fired, mercilessly, this time. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Brilliant. Now after Jacen and Korvo has a date to meet each other out of the hospital, Alistair suspects that they have something else between them — a more or less platonic relationship. From now on, ratings may or may not go up, so beware!


	12. The Meeting(or, A Tale of Two Sorcerers)

_PAIRING: Jacen Kavriel/OMC(pre-pre-slash or gen), Jacen Kavriel/Kate Vonnegut(friendship)_

 

  The next day, Korvo did go over to Jacen Kavriel’s place, which was, ironically, almost right next to the alleyway that was connected to the Sorcerers’ lair, which was the abandoned apartment that used to belong to the non-magic folks of non-magic London. 

 

  “Are you sure about this place?” asked Korvo, when he and Jacen met each other near the place, “this is eerie when it’s evening.” 

  Jacen looked up towards the abandoned apartments and turned back to him. 

  “Well, normally no one goes there,” he replied, “and most of us actually just use that place to practice on our duelling.” 

 

  When they finally went inside Jacen’s place, the bright white flash of aura flames nearly blinded another of Jacen’s acquaintances. Apparently it was Kate Vonnegut. 

  “Hm, seems like Mr. Korvo Yushanov is also here?” she asked, standing up from the couch and putting her coffee cup down on the coffee table, “long time no see, eh?” 

 

  Korvo was too stunned to see her. He turned to Jacen, wide-eyed. 

  “Since when?” was what he managed before contacting Alistair and the others, with Jacen stopping him abruptly. 

  “You are not to tell Alistair and the others, Korvo,” he said firmly, “she’s staying here temporarily. Kate was confirmed to be deceased by the sorcery law. It’ll take a long time for her to confirm the fact that she isn’t dead.” 

 

  When Korvo and Jacen settled down, Kate gave them each a mug of Rooibus and Saffron tea and Jacen explained the reason why she was with him, and it wasn’t just because the Council is hiding her, it was also because the cult thought her deceased, and only Ibis and the Council knew that she was still alive and well. 

 

  “What about Alistair?” whispered Korvo, after Jacen told him all this, “he should know this, and about the curse that hurt Hamish, according to my theory, they wanted Cera to be the next leader of the cult.” 

  “I’ve heard,” said Kate, before Jacen could even reply, “she’s capable, but she wouldn’t be much use to them anyway, and if they want her now, that means they’d destroy her once they’re finished with her. We’d better save her earlier than late.” 

 

  Right on cue, Korvo remembered about last evening, the argument between him and Alistair. Alistair cared about her. 

  “Your brother cares a lot about her.” he said quietly, looking into his tea instead of at Kate and Jacen. “He hardly even orders Jeffrey O’Cairn and Stephen Hildebrand around anymore. I don’t think he’d train them himself if it wasn’t of Cera’s influence.” 

  Kate looked between her companions. She’s heard about Cera Hildebrand, the sorceress from East Anglia, Norfolk, to be exact. The last time Ibis and her contacted was when Cera and Alistair framed Ibis and his companion, Stansa, from cursing several artifacts. 

 

  “She’s brilliant, according to Ibis,” she said after some silence, then looked more optimistic at the sorcerers, “I’d say Alistair’s lucky to have her. What is the condition of the cult right now?” 

  And like that, their conversation shifted from Alistair and Cera to the current status of the dark cult. 

 

*** 

 

  Korvo and Jacen hung out together for most of that day, since Kate wasn’t allowed, BY the Council and the dark cult, to reveal to everyone that she was alive, instead of deceased. 

  “So that’s the reason why you are still enabling aura transport in and out?” asked Korvo as they decided to take a stroll inside of the Department of Sorcery, with him wanting to show Jacen exactly what he, Randall, and Alistair meant when they mentioned that the dark cult used a Doppelgänger Seduction spell on themselves to enter the Room of the Requiem. 

 

  “Yes, she’s suspended from going outdoors normally,” replied Jacen as they walked along the dim, over-sized corridors of the below ground-floor department. “OK, enough about her, what did you mean when you said that the dark cult have their sorcerers inside the Room?” 

 

  Right on cue, before Korvo could even reply to the question, there was a loud blast of aura flame and people shouting at each other. 

  Korvo and Jacen looked nervous at each other and silently agreed with each other on their theories. It does seem the Dark cult used the seduction spell. 

 

  Carefully edging closer to the Room of the Requiem, they both peeked in. Indeed, two robed figures were inside, looking at the different artifacts. 

  “Who are they?” murmured Jacen, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sensations given by the aura of the cult members. 

 

  Korvo gently put his arm around him and made sure both of them were out of sight, before he murmured back, “if my hypothesis is correct, it’s Salamander and Pigeon.” 

  Feeling safer and much comforted by Korvo’s gesture, Jacen blushed again. If he stayed even longer with him, it’d definitely be too much to bear; and how can he tell the others? Especially when it seemed that Alistair also had feelings for Korvo? 

 

  “…so they’re much more powerful than expected, aren’t they?” Salamander asked, taking the opal necklace that was almost familiar to Korvo, since he’d heard the story from both Alistair’s and Ibis’s POV. “Will they come back?” 

  Jacen could almost hear Pigeon roll her eyes, just like Cera would’ve done when she’s with Alistair. “Of course,” she snapped, before all of a sudden, a smoke surrounded them, and they start reacting violently. 

 

  “What’s going on this time?” mumbled Jacen into Korvo’s shoulder, looking away. 

  Korvo didn’t tear his eyes away from the enemies. “Apparently the mechanism is still working.” He then shouted out, “you’re surrounded! Surrender to the Council or be suffocated!” 

 

  And again, right on cue, there were sorcery alarms going off and echoes started sounding off — the Council was there. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Yes, it’s similar to what we have nowadays, only does the alarms sound, do we go out and fight off whatever is bugging it.


	13. A Tale of Two Sorcerers Continued(or, Feelings Never Told Part 2)

  That same day over at the Sorcerers’ Lair, Jeffrey and Stephen were training with Lanvin, but as expected, the two young sorcerers got distracted, and Ibis had sighed in exasperation for the nth time. 

 

  Lanvin giggled when they ran off to check the monitor as Ibis sighed pitifully. Woe is he, indeed! 

  “I really have no idea why, and how, did Alistair Vonnegut tolerate their abilities to get distracted!” he shouted when Lanvin started shaking with suppressed laughing, “if I were still a member of the dark cult, I’d try and use them instead of Cera!” 

  “They’d get distracted way too quickly, and that’d make the cult look bad, the leader doesn’t want that, remember?” Lanvin managed, before collapsing into laughing all over again, until Ibis threatened the cult upon him. 

 

  From the monitor, Stephen Hildebrand and Jeffrey O’Cairn was watching another footage, before Stephen, aka the one who never knows when and how to shut up, hollered out, “I KNEW IT! I knew that Kay —” 

  “Be quiet, will ya?” snapped Jeffery, “whatever happened to her, no one’s allowed to know!” 

 

  That successfully dragged Ibis out of his Woe-Is-I phase. 

  “No one knows that Kate Vonnegut is alive, other than most of the cult and the Council, I was the one who suggested her to fake her death.” he said to them, finally looking up and seeing Stephen and Jeff looking across from where they are. 

  “She’s living with Jacen Kavriel,” Stephen looked away and back to the monitor, which showed Jacen’s profile, “Jacen Kavriel: A sorcerer from the Council. Hamish Frye’s current companion for time void traveling. Status is… ‘current living with Kate Vonnegut; in order to cover for her and make sure she doesn’t cause any havoc since her ‘death’ —’” he did quotation marks here, and continued, “‘— because of the large stir it may cause.’ OK, that was interesting. I used to think those two were a duo. Kind of like my sister and Alistair, or something even more intimate.” 

  Both Ibis and Jeffrey rolled their eyes. “They are a duo, Steph,” the latter said in exasperation, “listen here: ‘Ms Vonnegut has been the companion to Mr. Kavriel since her faked death, in order to continue serving the Council.’ And sorry to break it to you, they do not have any intimacy between them.” 

  Finally, Ibis interrupted, “aren’t you two s’posed to continue your training?” 

  That successfully made the youngsters get back to the task at hand, as usual, as Alistair mentioned endless times. 

 

*** 

 

  Later that afternoon, when Stephen and Jeffrey were busy with whatever they were cooking up again in the study, they had no idea what was going on outside of said place, since if they knew, they’d be way too distracted and actually reveal some vital information. 

 

  “They can’t be fighting amongst themselves, can they?” asked Stansa when she was beckoned back at the Vonnegut estate. According to Korvo, Alistair invited her back because she could be the substitute of Cera. 

  Ibis looked up as Alistair looked coldly at Korvo, with Korvo still as haughty as before. 

 

  “They are.” he said back, just as Alistair snapped at Korvo, “and don’t you compare me to the non-magic folks, Korvo, before I unleash the dark cult ON you.” 

  Both Stansa and Korvo rolled their eyes, the former at Korvo and Alistair’s antics, and the latter on Alistair’s inability to understand what he was implying. 

 

  “What I’m saying is, do you have a relationship already with Cera Hildebrand.” said Korvo, this time with zero patience left. 

  “No, and you do have with Jacen Kavriel, isn’t it?” asked Alistair, his eyes darkening even more, but not as dramatically as Ibis’s. 

 

  Korvo turned away when Jacen was mentioned. How could he even have a relationship with him, when he’s obviously with Hamish Frye? 

  The disappointment must have shown, because right at that moment, Alistair marched off to the study, ignoring Korvo, Ibis, and Stansa all along. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End chapter 13


	14. Mission Impossible(or, Hexes and the Charming Spirit

The mission of getting in the Room of the Requiem was not a success to the dark cult, because most of them were caught or struck by the Council members. 

 

  “It’s no use,” said Salamander to the cult leader when he and Pigeon arrived back at the cult’s lair, right next to Brinkley House, “we were discovered! The Council is stronger than we expected, sir, and it’s without Hamish Fry!” 

  The leader was furious. “Idiots, ALL OF YOU!” he screamed, and all the cult members shrank from their imposing figures. “If you cannot go into the Room of the Requiem, send that sorceress who works for Vonnegut there for you! She’s a member of the Council, isn’t she?” 

 

  From their room, Pigeon looked out of the room before hearing this last line. 

  “No, sir, she’s not,” she said back, “is this the reason why you wanted Lanvin back?” 

  The leader looked darkly at her. “Yes.” he hissed, sparks flying from his fingertips, just like how it was for Ibis, “very soon, I can no longer lead this cult, and she should be the successor!” 

 

  Cringing, Pigeon closed the door again and turned to Cera. 

  “He wants you to be his successor,” she said to her, “and I myself don’t think you could be the leader of this cult. Not that you have no leadership skills — you do, I’m sure — but you don’t really belong among us.” 

  Cera looked at her and was stunned. It was actually like the dark cult to grab whichever Council member they want for their group, and it actually happened to Lanvin. There has to be a reason why Pigeon doesn’t want her to be the next leader. 

  “Why not?” she said softly, more to herself than to Pigeon, or rather, as said person asked to call her, Caroline. “I may not bee as powerful as Alistair, but I’m sure I can.” 

 

  Pigeon looked at her. “The leader of the current dark cult wants you to be his successor, Cera, and you should understand that,” she said back, turning around and looking at her, “he used to want Lanvin for the same purpose, before Hamish Frye, the sorcerer for the Council, killed him and forced Wilberforce to be the new leader.” 

  All Cera could manage was stare. Also, Wilberforce? “That’s the leader’s name?” she asked softly, more to herself than to Caroline. 

  Caroline ignored her, already berating herself for revealing another vital information. 

 

*** 

 

  That same day, Korvo was going to the Room of the Requiem with Randall Curtis instead of Jacen Kavriel, because Jacen had unfinished business with Alistair Vonnegut. 

  When Randall arrived at the Vonnegut estate, he saw the scene unfold before his eyes, with Ibis, Stansa, Stephen, and Jeffery all awkward. 

 

  “…going with Randall this time, and I’m telling you because you’re so insecure about whatever you’re trying to imply!” Korvo was saying, as Randall watched, wide-eyed, “you don’t care about me, Alistair, all you care about is Cera. Just admit it, will you? There’s much more vital things happening especially with the Cult.” 

  Randall was even more awkward when interrupting whatever argument they were having. 

  “Ummmm, am I interrupting?” he mumbled. 

 

  Both Alistair and Korvo looked hard at him. 

  “Yes/No!” they yelled in unison, and Stephen had to bite back a laugh. “I asked for Randall to come with me, since you don’t trust Jacen and me.” said Korvo, his curls still lush, but almost without any luster, “I asked Jacen to look after Stephen and Jeffrey, because they were supposed to be at the lair today.” 

  That was when Ibis cutted in, “why can’t Lanvin be training them here?” 

 

  Korvo turned away and Randall smirked. 

  “You worry about Jacen being with Hamish, eh?” he snarked, a too knowing smirk on his lip. “Anyways, tell you what, the healer said that Jacen was always beside him is because Hamish signed him as his emergency contact.” 

  That was enough a bombshell to be dropped on the fighting duo. 

 

*** 

 

  Stephen and Jeffrey were asked to be training in the sorcerers’ lair, as before, with Jacen Kavriel, and the reason was that Lanvin, in order for his safety, wasn’t allowed out the estate. And if he really has to get out there, he has to have one or more members of the Council with him as bodyguards, just in case of the dark cult springing up again. 

  Alistair and Stansa were with them, the former keeping a very close eye on Jacen. 

 

  Stephen and Jeffery were in the middle of performing a hex when they heard Stansa trying to comfort Alistair, so their ears perked up almost immediately. 

  “…love him when a war is about to start,” she was saying, occasionally making some hand gestures, “Korvo cares about Lanvin and wants the best for him, and if he and Jacen are good, that means Lanvin doesn’t have to be heartbroken anymore, since Jacen and Hamish are together.” 

  Alistair closed his eyes, but still couldn’t help glaring at Jacen, who was oblivious to the attention. 

  “I do not want him near Korvo.” he said darkly, and Stephen and Jeffrey smirked at each other. 

 

  “I guess as soon as we’re back, we can make a love potion and make those two confess to each other?” the former asked sneakily, looking at Alistair again. “By the way, since the dark cult thing is going on, we haven’t given them any proper attention.” 

  Before Jeffrey could reply, Jacen cried out when seeing the monitor. 

 

  Immediately everyone snapped into attention, even Alistair and Stansa. 

  “What’s going on?” Alistair demanded. 

  “I can not believe this,” Jacen finally looked up, “Randall is risking his life to save Cera Hildebrand.” 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End chapter 14


	15. There and Back Again

When Stephen and Jeffrey looked at the footage, they could see two figures on the screen. 

 

  “He’s always reckless, isn’t he,” remarked Stansa quietly, “what if the cult finds out?” 

  “Apparently it’s almost empty, Pigeon and Cera are holding the fort, because the leader hardly trusts them anymore,” said Jeffery, gesturing to what was going on in the footage. “Jacen,” he finally looked up, “since when is this monitor connected to the lair of the dark cult?” 

 

  Jacen looked slightly disapproving towards Alistair and shook his head. It was actually a plan, Kate Vonnegut’s plan all along. She’d told him how important is it that Cera gets returned to the Last Council, which was obviously Alistair and the trainees. 

  “They should succeed, if her calculations are right,” he said quietly to himself. 

 

  Here, everyone looked at him. “Who?” asked Stansa. 

  Jacen wasn’t surprised by Stansa’s reaction, but was when he answered her question, “Kate Vonnegut.” 

 

*** 

 

  Meanwhile, over at Brinkley House, the dark cult was already preparing for their most recent hex of spells, that may or may not trigger more of those weather changes. Randall and Korvo appeared out of a bright flash of white light, right in front of the door of the mansion. 

 

  “Cera’d be devastated if she knew that the dark cult is inside Brinkley House,” said Randall, after the light has settled, “we should be using the Doppelgänger Seduction spell.” 

 

  From inside the lair of the Dark Cult, Cera was worried. What was the cult doing, if they didn’t need her anymore? Will they actually go back hunting for Lanvin? 

  “What do they want this time if Lanvin isn’t working for them anymore?” she wondered. “Also, please tell me they’re not going to where I think they’re going.” 

 

  Caroline sighed at her. “Ever since Mr. Curtis betrayed us, the leader wanted you to be the next leader,” she suddenly said, “so when we were in Norfolk, we were actually interrogating him. We were asking about you, but he didn’t tell. All he was begging us about is Lanvin’s safety.” 

  Cera remembered that. It sounded scary, and she didn’t want to know what will Lanvin be like if he experienced that all over again. 

 

  All of a sudden, there was a loud crash, and people cursing their luck. Caroline immediately transformed into cult mode and called out, “who is it?” 

 

  From outside the room, Randall and Korvo were inside their disguises, and very convincing ones too. Randall shuddered at the voice; he never  wanted to see her again — Pigeon, the female that nearly killed Lanvin. 

  Korvo could feel how furious Randall was at hearing the female’s voice. 

 

  “Who is that?” he asked quietly, after Randall announced himself as Salamander. 

  “That,” Randall bit out, “is Pigeon. If she’s with Cera, that means trouble. She’ll pretend to be your closest friend if you’re caught by the cult, then follow the darn orders and psychologically wound you forever. You wait here, I really have unfinished business with that sorceress!” 

  Korvo cringed at Randall’s sudden strong language when speaking. It really seemed that Randall and Pigeon never had a good relationship. 

 

  When Randall went inside the room, it took almost all of his willpower to not botch up the mission and actually kill Pigeon, because indeed, she was holding Cera captive. 

  “I never knew that we’ve got a Council member as a captive, the leader never told me,” he said in his best Dark cult way. “So who is this, may I ask?” 

 

  “Cera Hildebrand, the companion to your worst enemy.” said Pigeon, surveying Cera as if she was some kind of interesting new species of insect. “I have no idea how long will it take for the Council to be actually out and about looking for her, otherwise I’d suspect that they never wanted her anyways.” 

  Randall felt his blood pressure go up and almost exploded on her, if it wasn’t Heron who called out to him. It was beyond him to think that the emotionally fragile Lanvin Dusset could tolerate this. 

 

  He looked up. “I’ll be there in a moment!” he called back, and to Pigeon, he said, “we have to observe her some more, then maybe propose something so that the Council could come and save her. If she’s not being the new leader, WE WILL MAKE HER BE!” 

  Both Cera and Pigeon nearly jumped out of themselves. It was never a good sign if one of the cult members raise their voices. 

 

*** 

 

  The next plan was the most difficult, which meant that if Korvo and Randall wanted to get Cera out of the dark cult’s lair, they’d better act fast and without being suspicious. 

 

  “It’s taking all of your willpower not to kill Pigeon right there and then, so maybe I’d better go over to them.” suggested Korvo when he and Randall finally went out and entered from the back door. 

  All of a sudden, Randall’s Karmonphone vibrated. Both he and Korvo jumped, their hearts in their mouths, until it was revealed to be Kate Vonnegut. 

 

  “Oh, hi, Kate,” Randall managed, “we’re in the lair of the dark cult, and you nearly gave us a heart attack.” 

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Oh, no, Randall,” she said back, brisk as can be, “Jacen and I are monitoring your movements, in order to track you with the Tracer spell. Do not, I repeat, do not, use a Torture spell on Caroline; at least not yet.” 

 

  “Caroline?” asked both Randall and Korvo in unison when the former decided to use the 3-D imaging instead and allowing Korvo to listen to the conversation as well. 

  “Caroline Spencer, also known as Pigeon.” said Kate, looking around at their location. She then turned around and hollered into the room she’s in, “Jacen, I found them! They’ve found Cera.” 

 

  Korvo and Randall exchanged a glance. Since when did Kate Vonnegut enter in this mission as well?

  After some minutes, Jacen appeared as well into view. 

 

  “So you’ve found her?” he asked, his eyes glittering. 

  “Yes, and Randall here is suffering from withdrawal of killing Caroline right then and there.” answered Korvo, when all of a sudden, a powerful blast was heard and a crash, with people shouting. 

  “Something’s up, we’ll contact you soon.” immediately, Randall disconnected Kate and Jacen. 

 

*** 

 

  Exactly how they saved Cera from the clutches of the dark cult, it was pretty simple if you ask Randall. They used the disguises and claimed to Caroline that they were going to deal with Cera in Brinkley House, and blasted Cera with a temporary spell, in order to be convincing. And that’s how come they used an ersatz-Cera in the actual Cera’s place. 

 

  Instead of going to Alistair Vonnegut’s flat immediately after her rescue from the cult, Korvo suggested that she’d better stay with Kate and Jacen, until her powers come back into full power, and until she recover from her shock and confusion. So it was all another big surprise when Cera went with Randall and Korvo back to the Kavriel flat. 

 

  “Welcome to the Kavriel apartment, sorcerers.” Kate was there to greet them, by Jacen’s orders. “And Ms. Hildebrand, it’s finally an opportunity to meet you.” 

  “It’s really you,” said Cera quietly, looking at her, “Alistair’ll be so delighted. He loves you, extremely deeply.” 

 

  Randall and Korvo smirked at each other. Mission number 1 accomplished, and Ersatz-Cera isn’t about to fail the cult. Well, maybe fail them until they disappear to sorcery prisons. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End 15th chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So yay, Cera’s back with the gang, and what happens when she and Alistair goes to Scotland? Stay tuned for the next parts!


	16. The Last Council(or, Something Even More Supernatural)

“YES, they got her!” shouted out Stephen Hildebrand when he and Jeffrey O’Cairn watched the monitor, tracking Randall Curtis and Korvo from Brinkley House and back. 

 

  It was already late afternoon when Randall signalled, via Karmonphone, at Stephen and Jeffrey’s monitor satellite, did the youngsters understand the cue. 

 

  “ALISTAIR AND JACEN!” hollered Stephen in glee, “they got her!” 

  From the adjoining room, Alistair and Jacen went out to the ex-living room and glanced at the footage, which already turned into a call from Randall. 

 

  “Stephen, Jeffrey, we’re now at Jacen’s place, so no need to worry further,” he said brightly, “plus, Alistair, we’re worried that Cera needs time to recover from what must have happened to her when she was with the cult. She’ll be staying with Jacen.” 

 

***

 

  All peace was washed out again when Jeffrey and Stephen watched the sorcery news on the view screen at Alistair’s flat that evening, when Jeffery exclaimed, “can sorcerers do that?” 

 

  Stephen, who was reading a sorcery book, looked up and saw what the sorcerer host was talking about. Someone was using illusions to make all Sorcery World London think that most shops and boutiques were still in business, while the rest of the residents are living in fear. 

 

  “What’s this about?” he asked, looking intently at the view screen. 

  As if answering him, the camera of the view-screen panned to the Council grounds and showed the viewers different stone statues that looked like it was taken straight out of a non-magic horror movie. 

  The youngsters looked at each other. Brilliant. 

 

  “I wonder if your sister knows about this?” asked Jeffrey after some silence. “I’m certain that this was done by the dark cult, otherwise why would they notify us?” 

  Stephen shrugged. “I’m telling the others and make sure they get a move on about their stuff.” Then ran upstairs as soon as he jumped off the couch. 

 

  Upstairs, Stansa and Ibis were looking really, really serious at their Karmonphones before running into Alistair’s room, where Lanvin, Korvo, and Alistair himself was in. 

  Gingerly, Stephen followed them and pressed his ear towards the ajar door, where really worried voices were heard. 

 

  “…don’t know what’ll the Council make of this, there isn’t a war going on again, is there?” Stansa. 

  There was a sound of someone pulling the curtains closed, then the voice of Alistair. 

  “We’re going to go investigate tomorrow,” he said confidently, in the voice that Stephen and Jeffrey always heard from him, “Lanvin, you’d better stay inside with the youngsters, (I don’t know if they know about this yet, but still, to be on the safe side), it’s up to us if the Council isn’t co-operating on this. Also, we have to go to the Department of Sorcery again.” 

 

  There was a murmur of agreement, and Korvo said, “should Cera get notified about this?” 

  Stephen cringed, thinking about his current not-so-friendly status with Alistair, when Ibis spoke, “if she’s staying with Jacen, that means she should know, whether she likes it or not. Plus, she and Alistair has to go convert the curse from the objects before it is too late.” 

  As soon as Ibis finished his sentence, the discussion quickly turned into a debate. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m so sorry, I haven’t been having much ideas on what direction to take this fic, so it may be slow on updating!


	17. Norfolk Tales(or, There and Back Again Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Apologies to whoever thought of Severus Piton as his or her OC, that I used him without telling you first! 
> 
> Apparently the friend of mine also had this character in mind when he wrote the third volume of the Community trilogy. Just as a reminder. I don't want any hard feelings when people are reading this! (see the end of the chapter for more notes)

It wasn’t surprising at all when Cera suggested that she and Stephen first go back to Norfolk and sort out their things before joining the rest of them on their adventure without entering the time void. But as usual, Alistair Vonnegut was paranoid enough to disagree with her on that settlement. 

 

  “I’ll be fine, I promise,” said Cera, for the nth time that day when she and Randall, as well as Korvo and Alistair himself, went to the sorcerers’ lair to watch Jacen Kavreil train Stephen Hildebrand and Jeffrey O’Cairn, “we really have to go there, then you should come to us and we could go to Scotland to look for the centaurs. The spirit said that we needed centaur tears, didn’t it?” 

  And meanwhile, Korvo was saying to Randall, “see, I told you, he cares way more about her than anyone else! Maybe except for Stephen and Jeff, but because Jeff’s parents are in the Council and Stefan’s her younger brother.” 

 

  That was true enough. Jeffrey’s parents were indeed in the Council before eventually leaving because of what the former Council leader said about Lanvin. 

  “They almost look at Lanvin as an inspiration, which he definitely could be,” Jeff had said to Stephen when he, Alistair, Cera, and said person had finished their visit to Lanvin at St. Barton’s and had got back to Alistair’s flat. “My parents hardly ever judge sorcerers by their conditions, and if Lanvin suffers, they feel empathy, almost like Alistair.” 

 

  “Your parents are even better than ours,” Stephen had said back, glancing at Mr. and Mrs. O’Cairn as they talked with another sorcerer, with the name of Severus Piton, “is it because of your custom?” 

  Jeffrey had ignored that one and changed the subject, and Stephen stopped trying to pry further. Irish sorcerers are just plain eccentric. 

 

  Back in the present, Alistair immediately was provoked, almost like how Lanvin was. 

  “I care about her because we are companions, Korvo. She’s not the only one I care about!” 

  “The show me who else you care about!” Korvo snapped back, just as quickly, “right, go with them to Norfolk. You want to, you know that!” 

 

  All of a sudden, a bright flash of white light illuminated the whole room, and Randall appeared. 

  “Sorcerers!” he announced with a flourish, “I’ve vital information. We have to hurry if we want to defeat the cult this time, they’ve re-animated almost all of the fallen Council members.” 

 

  Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked wide-eyed at him. 

  “Re-animation?” asked Alistair, tearing his attention away from Korvo at last, “what is that about?” 

 

  “It was in the sorcery news today,” suddenly, before Randall could say his catchphrases, Jeffrey spoke, “there are re-animated Council members going around the sorcery alleyways. I’m not sure how long can Lanvin and Kate Vonnegut keep in hiding.” 

  That was another bombshell. 

 

  “WHAT?!” shouted Alistair when he heard Kate’s name in Jeff’s sentence. 

  Jeff gulped. He just let slip the fact that Kate was alive. 

 

*** 

 

  Ibis and Stansa went with Cera and Stephen to Norfolk in order to make sure the cult wouldn’t follow them, as they abled the aura flame travel to and from Counties later that day when they went to the Department of Sorcery. 

 

  “Trust me, that really isn’t that necessary,” said Stephen when he was told about the facts mentioned above. 

  “‘Course it is!” beamed Jeffrey, “think about it, we could go visit you just by aura travel, without taking the train anymore — because it is just plain creepy when you think about the black-out!” 

  Cera cringed. She definitely remembered about the black-out, and didn’t think it was funny. 

 

  When Ibis, Stansa, Stephen, and Cera finally disappeared into the bright flash of white and aqua light, all that is left is Korvo, Alistair, and Randall, if you don’t count Lanvin, who was with Jacen. 

 

  When they finally started walking again, three towering figures appeared out of nowhere and immediately, Randall and Alistair became high on alert. 

  “Now, don’t tell me this is the re-animated Council members because they’re normally not towering.” said Randall, quietly, to Alistair, “because that is worse than the actual dark cult.” 

 

  At that moment, another bright flash of white light illuminated the place, and at that moment, the three towering figures crashed and crunched to the floor, in a pile of stone. 

  “Whoever did this has to be a really powerful sorcerer,” the new-comer said to himself, as he had some others with him as well. He then looked up and saw Randall, Korvo, and Alistair. 

 

  “Welcome back, Master Curtis.” he said again, looking straight at Randall, then saluted, along with his two cronies. 

  “Severus.” Randall nodded to him and he made the pile disappear. 

 

  Korvo looked between them and looked at Alistair in awe. 

  “That’s Severus Piton, Alistair!” he hissed, as Randall and Severus continued their friendly chat, “he’s the left wing for the former leader of the Council. Trust Stephen to miss this opportunity!” 

  “They’ll get to know Mr. Piton quick enough, and we get to tell them via Karmonphone.” replied Alistair; he then went up to Severus and introduced, “I am Alistair Vonnegut, companion to Cera Hildebrand.” 

 

  Severus also gave him a significant look. “Welcome back, Mr. Vonnegut,” he smiled, and Korvo felt another jolt of unexpected jealousy. Why in the world is he even feeling these emotions? 

 

*** 

 

  That afternoon, when Alistair, Randall, and Severus continued discussing about how to defeat the dark cult, Korvo went to Jacen again, and met him in St. Barton’s. Apparently Jacen was visiting Hamish again, and Korvo had to keep his emotions in check when he saw Hamish and Jacen being too close for comfort. 

 

  Hamish was already up and about, but still needed rest and special care; and Jacen was over-enthusiastic about taking care of him. 

  “OK, then, Mr. Kavriel,” said the healer who was caring and looking out for Hamish, “feel free to call when you need to.” 

  Jacen positively beamed at her. “I will.” 

 

  “Hullo again, sweet,” chirped the healer when she noticed Korvo standing near the doorway. 

  Korvo mustered his best Alistair Vonnegut smile at her and looked over at Hamish as he entered the ward, and blushing, the healer left them alone. 

 

  “Apparently Alistair may or may not know about Kate already,” said Korvo as soon as he finally got Jacen away from Hamish at last. “Jeffrey blurted the secret out. 

  As expected, Jacen completely freaked out. 

  “Alistair shouldn’t’ve trusted those two, Korvo, and if it wasn’t the fact that the O’Cairns were in the Council…” he ranted, waving his arms around, “the O’Cairns left, Korvo, and he still trusts them? The Hildebrands, I can understand, but trusting the O’Cairns?” 

 

  From the window, Hamish looked out towards the not-so-busy streets of Sorcery World London, then looked up against the glass at Korvo and Jacen bickering about families. 

  “Jacen, we’ve more important things to think about: have you heard about re-animating the fallen Council members?” he suddenly asked out of the blue, “I’ve heard that they’re used by the dark cult, because Cera Hildebrand is gone.” 

  That got Korvo’s attention a little too quickly. 

  “How…?” 

  Hamish turned around. “They know a replacement when they see one, Korvo,” he replied, “the last time when I tried to save Lanvin, Randall tried that, but was busted on the spot. We saved him only after I killed the leader.” 

 

  Back in the Department of Sorcery, Severus got a call on his Karmonphone; and by the looks of it, it was another illusion. 

  Immediately snapping his Karmonphone off, Severus lead Alistair and Randall over to the Room of the Requiem. 

 

  “Why here?” the latter asked immediately after Severus opened the door. 

  Severus spun around. “Don’t you understand?” he asked back, “the dark cult members, Pigeon and Salamander, to be exact, took the latest cursed items and we have to find them. But first, we have to consult the spirit.” 

  Randall and Alistair looked at each other again. Seems like they have to notify Cera something else. 

 

*** 

 

  During all that time, Cera, Ibis, Stansa, and Stephen already arrived in Norwich, Norfolk, UK. More specifically, Sorcery World Norwich. And meanwhile, Stansa and Ibis were investigating the town hall, where Cera witnessed the dark cult ritual of interrogation practiced on Randall, when Cera called them via Karmonphone. 

 

  “Bad news, Stansa and Ibis, seems like some of the cursed objects are gone.” she said, her voice trying its best to be calm, “Alistair an’ the others just found out. Alistair and my journey to Scotland may have to wait till the items are found.” 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End 17th Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another reminder: I've been trying to find the Harry Potter fanfic which used Severus Piton in order to reference it, so as soon as I find it, I'll be writing a citation as well.


	18. Something In Brinkley House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm writing another fic that is a sequel to this one(it was requested by a friend on IM), so this is sort of spoiler-y. (see the end of the cahpter for more notes)

The dark cult was indeed the ones who took the cursed artifacts back from the Room of the Requiem, and the cult members who did that was indeed Salamander, but him with someone else other than Pigeon. 

  According to the recent stand-in for the current leader of the cult, they were supposed to curse some other artifacts as well, and while they were inside Brinkley House when Randall and Korvo were trying to initiate the rescue mission for Cera Hildebrand, the actual Salamander and Chameleon. 

 

  Listening to the cult leader’s orders, Salamander and his companion casted a spell over a painting in the corridors of the second floor of the mansion, as well as cursing a mirror. 

  “The Council will never suspect anything if the painting is cursed, as well as the mirror,” said Chameleon when he casted the spell over the mirror, “anyways, if they ever defeat us, they’d just party on and on and not realize anything wrong.” 

  Salamander was almost finished with the painting, since it was one that almost reflected anyone who looks at it. 

  “True, and we’d better see if they still have Cera Hildebrand.” 

 

  Blue aura sparkles surrounded the entire second floor, as well as the third floor, and as soon as that happened, there was a hiss. 

  Salamander looked at Chameleon. “What was that?” 

  “I expect that was the painting?” the latter asked, walking over to said painting and observing it. “Painting?” 

 

  “This painting is essential…” the painting said in a very hissy voice that was obvious to the ears that it was something the dark cult left. It sounded almost the same as the Charming spirit of the Council, but with a much more sinister note, and a less reedy tone. 

  Salamander and Chameleon looked satisfied at each other. Mission 1 accomplished. 

 

  They went up to the mirror next, and suddenly, a light flame hissed out, and the two dark cultists exchanged another satisfied look with each other. Second mission, accomplished as well. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: To all of you who's not on my IM, you're the lucky ones -- you didn't get confused, but you read a small spoiler xD!


	19. Artifacts and Antiques(or, What Happened to the Missing Artifacts?)

  

The missing artifacts were the doing of the dark cult, and Severus Piton could be certain with his judgement. Unlike him, both Randall and Alistair were skeptical. 

  “But the question is, how did they even get here?” asked Randall when Severus suggested it, “the mechanisms disallow anyone who isn’t a member of the Council from even entering it.” 

 

  All of a sudden, Severus spun around, looking disbelieving at Randall’s possible ignorance when coming to what actually happened. It has to be the cult, otherwise, who else could order their workers to do something that totally destructed anything? 

  “It is the cult, Master Curtis, who else?” Severus was trying to be calm and not freak out, because of how serious the matter was. 

  “If it was, how could the alarms not work?” Randall asked back, “the last time anyone was here, it was Korvo and Jacen; that also happened recently, and if there were cultists, how could they even enter in this room?” 

 

  They already started bickering until Alistair decided to break in. 

  “Ever heard about the Doppelgänger Seduction spell?” he asked, looking between them, “our presumption is the cult ordered some members here and get the not-yet-converted artifacts. It actually is possible; because the alarms can never separate doppelgängers and the actual sorcerer.” 

  Severus only half-listened, because he’d guessed that Alistair would’ve said so, sooner or later. 

 

  “I told you, master Curtis.” he said to Randall, “yes, what Alistair said is true! The alarms and sensors can never separate a spell from the real thing.” 

  Randall glared at him. “OK, so you’re suggesting that no one ever thought about updating the settings of the sensors?” 

 

  Alistair decided to go up to the creepy statue himself as his companions bickered, when all of a sudden, a mist hung over them. All three sorcerers stopped in their tracks. 

 

  Randall looked up. “Don’t tell me this is also the doing of the —” he was saying, before suddenly being interrupted by an eerie reedy voice. 

  “It issss…” it said, as before they even spoke the password, the spirit was automatically consulted. 

 

  Alistair, Randall, and Severus looked nervously at each other. Whatever this was about, they didn’t want to know. But before Severus could tell them to get out of there, two more sorcerers appeared at the doorway, with glowing eyes. 

 

  Severus looked horrified. “These are illusions,” he murmured, gathering Alistair and Randall close, “we have to fight them.” 

 

*** 

 

  Meanwhile, during all of this, Lanvin and Jeffrey were with Kate Vonnegut inside Jacen and Hamish’s flat, with Jeffrey looking out of the bay window and Lanvin and Kate observing any movements of Alistair et al via monitor in the study. 

 

  “They’re having trouble over at the Council Academy, Lanvin,” said Kate suddenly, notifying Lanvin via Karmonphone when said person went into Jacen’s room to check on Jeff, “it seemed that the illusions are causing havoc below ground at the Department of Sorcery.” 

  Quickly, Lanvin and Jeff got out of the room and went to the study. 

 

  “No, Kate, that can’t be possible,” replied Jeff, surveying the monitor, which showed almost a 3-D image of the department grounds. He could see three figures, which three banners told them that they were Alistair, Severus, and Randall. 

  As he watched, there were several unidentified figures closing in, and the monitor was having trouble identifying them. 

  “Who’re these?” he finally looked up and asked. 

 

  All of a sudden, before Kate could reply, she got a contact via Korvo. 

  “Kate, it seems that Alistair and the others are having trouble over at the department, and we need Ibis, Stansa, and Cera to come back immediately,” he said quickly, his voice almost panicky, “without Lanvin and Hamish, we need the best we have.” 

  Kate nodded and promised to contact Cera as soon as possible, then hung up with Korvo. 

 

  Lanvin looked concerned at her. “That was Korvo?” he murmured. 

  “Yes.” Kate said back softly, “we need Cera and the others immediately. Also Jeffrey,” she looked dejected, “those are the illusions.” 

 

*** 

 

  It was mostly up to Jeffrey when coming to investigations about where in fact are the missing artifacts; and when he asked Stephen via Karmonphone, said person sounded like Cera in both his accent and manner. 

 

  “Heav’ns, Jeff, innit obvious?” he asked back, exasperated, “d’you checked the antique shop? Tell me you remember ‘bout Hamish an’ Jacen’s bickerin’?” (A/N: I’m trying my best at writing Norfolk accents, so please bear with me if it’s really rusty.) 

  Jeffrey shook his head. Right, the antique shop, he should’ve known, since it was the place where Stephen found suspicious for the first time. 

 

  “The antique shop.” he told Korvo when he finally finished his contact with Stephen, “we should start there, then maybe go and check inside Brinkley House next.” 

 

  Around the alleyway where the antique shop was first spotted, Korvo and Jeffrey could see that there were way more dark arts approved paraphernalia and memorabilia being sold, with some sorcerers touring around the place. 

  It was darker there, as if the cult made the weather and time almost frozen, and as soon as they arrived there, Korvo started feeling uneasy. 

 

  “Stephen’s good at interpretation,” he said as he and Jeff edged closer, seeing two sorcerers with dark clothes hiding in the shadows, plotting what, they didn’t know. 

 

  Towards the back alley, there was a small light. The light was extremely obvious to the sight because of the darkness surrounding the place. Inside the room that the light was illuminating, there were two sorcerers in dark robes, and they looked more like cultists than sorcerers from the Council. 

 

  Korvo already started feeling even worse as he and Jeffrey went slightly closer, and could feel that the robed sorcerers were members of the dark cult. 

  From inside the room, the robed sorcerers had something in front of them. 

 

  “That’s the artifact!” hissed Jeffrey as soon as he saw it, “but not the same one. The one that cursed Mr. Fry was a tripod of Chinese origin, and this is an opal necklace…” 

  The opal necklace looked familiar to Korvo, and he was struggling to remember where he saw one that looked like that one. 

  “Does that necklace look familiar to you?” he murmured, as he and Jeff edged even closer. They were too close now, and immediately they heard one of the robed sorcerers speak. 

 

  “Thass sumthin’ the Council n’ver expected, sir,” he said to one of his companions in a really thick Norfolk accent which made Korvo and Jeff look stunned at each other. “Wh’n Pit’n c’ns’lted Vonnegut, they din’t tell the truth. Yis, thass were the rest o’ the dark cult. We may d’stroy ‘em shor’ly. Fry is cursed, you ‘eard?” 

  “True that,” another agreed, “we need to convert this quick.” 

  Then there was a silence. 

 

  Korvo and Jeffrey peeked in via the window, then shrunk back to their original hiding positions. 

  “Who are they?” the latter whispered, “and why doesn’t Alistair and the others know them?” 

 

  Dragging him gingerly away, Korvo said, “if they are who and what I’m thinking of, we’d better make sure he and Cera go run whatever errand they had to.” 

  Again, Jeff was puzzled. Whoever the robed sorcerers were, they may or may not be on the side of the Council; and by the looks of it, they really are not. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End 19th Chapter


	20. Undercover and Consultations

Later that evening, Alistair was flabbergasted at Korvo’s suggestion of consulting the Chinese Sorcery department on the artifacts. 

 

  “You do understand that the artifacts are a trade deal by both the British sorcery department and the Chinese department, don’t you?” he asked when Korvo accidentally suggested the consultation aloud. 

  Everyone looked up, with Stephen wiggling his eyebrows at Jeffrey. 

  “I understand,” Korvo looked stern at him, “when Jeffrey and I were inside the dark alley because my Karmonphone indicated that there were an artifact there, we found several sorcerers with unknown background surveying an opal necklace. I recognized it, Alistair, it’s one of the relics the cult used to lure away Cera.” 

 

  There was a murmur among the party listening to Korvo’s claim, and Stephen and Jeff grinned at each other behind their hands, with their eyes looking to and from Korvo and Alistair. 

  They ignored the youngsters, since said youngsters never understood the seriousness of what undercover mission the Council had to face. 

 

*** 

 

  The next day, Jeffrey and Stephen were observing Korvo and Alistair on the monitor because mentioned persons were going again to the department, very possibly going to consult the sorcerer for foreign affairs, especially when Korvo and Jeff have already found several mystery sorcerers in the dark alleyway which was off limits to all non-Council members. 

 

  “Cera was telling Korvo last night that she and Alistair should go to Scotland,” said Jeffrey as he watched the footage, “she isn’t leaving just yet, why?” 

  Stephen didn’t know exactly, since he asked Cera last night, and she blocked him out on all info. 

 

  “I have no idea, but look here,” he turned on his Karmonphone, “it said that Scotland is also having trouble with the cult.” 

  Turning away from the monitor, Jeffrey watched the footage. Several cultists were in Sorcery World Glasgow and causing havoc. 

  The havoc wasn’t just simple cursing of artifacts, but actually harming several non-magic folks and several sorcerers. 

  “OK, this is new…” he commented, looking up at Stephen at last, “we’d better tell them.” 

 

  Meanwhile, Korvo and Alistair were already at the Council Academy where Severus Piton decided to hold the meeting, together with Jacen Kavriel. 

  “You’re here, Alistair,” said Severus when he saw them. He had Jacen on one side of him and another sorcerer on the other side. 

 

  Trying hard not to freak out already at Severus’s oblivious tone, Alistair looked at him in disbelief. 

  “You do understand that some of the artifacts are gone, don’t you?” he demanded. “The relic that cursed Hamish Frye is gone as well, and we have to talk to the Chinese Department.” 

 

  Both Korvo and Severus looked stunned at him. Normally no sorcerer is allowed to go into foreign affairs unless he or she is a member of the Council, and what’s more, Alistair left a long time ago. 

 

  “I’m sorry, Alistair, but only Korvo is allowed to go there,” said Severus coolly, motioning Jacen and the other sorcerer to leave them — Severus, Korvo, and Alistair, that is — alone. “You left. Plus, you know the rules of this place; no non-Council members are allowed to go into foreign affairs — we don’t want anything to happen to our department, much less the Chinese department.” 

  Alistair was about to retort when Korvo spoke up. 

  “This is something the cult started, Severus,” he tried explaining, “we’ll be going there together, and I’ll make sure Alistair doesn’t dabble in there.” 

 

  All of a sudden, an icy air blew through the academy great hall, and the daylight went darker. Immediately, Jacen and Korvo started feeling panicky. 

  “Severus…” began Jacen, before the entire great hall was surrounded with blue light. “We’d better leave here now!” 

 

  That was true, as he and Jacen immediately disappeared via a bright white light, but not before Severus snapped at Alistair to not even try to go into Foreign Affairs. 

 

*** 

 

  Not wanting more trouble after Severus’s disturbingly out of character behaviour, Korvo decided to go over to the foreign affairs department himself, and made sure that he had Lanvin go with him, with plenty of disagreement when he suggested the fact after he and Alistair went back to the latter’s flat. 

 

  “He cannot, Korvo, and you know that!” Alistair snapped when Korvo suggested the fact, “the cult is still looking for him, and I won’t want to risk his safety.” 

  “Severus said that only Council members can get access to foreign affairs, and other than him, who else can I go with?” Korvo snapped back, glaring at him. 

 

  They were in the living room when that exchange happened, and was during Stephen and Jeffrey’s training session with Lanvin himself. Ibis and Stansa were over at the sorcerers’ lair, so they were mercifully alone; well, as alone as they can be without any interruptions to their bickering. 

 

  There was a silence, and Korvo continued, “no one other than him, Alistair! None of us can go out alone because of the cult, and at least I can look out for him.” 

  “What about Randall?” after another silence, Alistair asked quietly. he never liked to argue with anyone, and he’d already had way too much experience of arguing with Cera whenever they had to travel through the time void. 

 

  Korvo closed his eyes and willed himself to not freak out already. Yes, Randall Curtis was a Council member, but there were reasons why Korvo absolutely refused to go with him. 

  “Fine.” he snapped again, glaring at Alistair, “you know why I disapprove of him and distrusts him, Alistair. He’s even worse than Severus. I’d rather go alone than with him!” 

  And with that, he left, slamming the front door. 

 

  There was a silence before meanwhile, inside the study, Jeffrey and Stephen stopped doing whatever they were doing previously and listened. Great, Alistair and Korvo’s first fight since the dark cult rose out of obscurity. 

 

o.o.O.O.o.o 

 

End 20th Chapter


End file.
